Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) has set sail on its earnings in its most recent report and on its new growth plans. The cruise ship operator had a solid performance, and it was not significantly hampered slightly by the currency headwinds that other companies have suffered. Also, it has ordered new ships to drive its growth in the years ahead.

Carnival reported its fiscal first-quarter financial results before the markets opened as $0.20 in earnings per share (EPS) and $3.5 billion in revenue. That compared to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $0.10 in EPS and $3.57 billion in revenue. In the same quarter of the previous year, the company posted EPS of $0.00 and revenue of $3.58 billion.

Carnival gave guidance for its second fiscal quarter as an increase of 3.5% to 4.5% in revenues. There is a consensus estimate of $3.66 billion in revenue.

In terms of currency exchange rates, EPS was reduced by $0.06 per share. On a constant dollar basis, net revenue yields increased 2.0% for the first quarter, which was better than the company’s December guidance of flat to up 1%. Gross revenue yields decreased 3.1% in current dollars due to changes in currency exchange rates.

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Ahead of the earnings release, Carnival also announced that it has ordered nine additional cruise ships as part of its fleet replacement program. Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri will take care of five of the cruise ships, and German shipbuilder Meyer Werft will build the other four. Among its various brands, Carnival now operates 101 ships.

President and CEO of Carnival, Arnold Donald, noted:

The year is off to a strong start achieving significantly higher earnings than the prior year and our previous guidance. Our onboard revenue initiatives drove particularly strong improvement in the first quarter with onboard yields more than 8 percent higher than prior year (constant dollar).

Within the past week a couple analyst made calls on Carnival:

• Deutsch Bank downgraded it to Hold from Buy but raised the price target to $51 from $48.
• Wedbush initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and a $52 price target.

So far on the year, Carnival stock is down about 1.4%, but over the past 52-weeks shares are up about 21%. The stock hit multiyear highs on the news of this report, but its stock chart shows that it is still shy of its pre-recession highs. Its shares currently trade at almost 19 times its 2015 earnings and around 15 times its 2016 fiscal year EPS.

Shares of Carnival were up almost 6% at $47.00 Friday morning. Its 52-week trading range is $33.11 to $47.70, and its consensus analyst price target is $53.17.

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