Royal Caribbean Q1 report looked better than it is at first

Royal Caribbean Cruises ltd (OSE: RCL, NYSE: RCL) reported quarterly earnings on Friday. 68% of the total revenue of 1.83 billion USD came from passenger tickets and the remaining 32% from onboard sales and other items. Total revenue growth compared to Q1 2011 was almost 10%.

First quarter of 2012 net profit prints just below 47 million USD (about 268 MNOK) or 0.21$ (1.2 NOK) per share, down from 0.36$ (2.05 NOK) a year ago as operating expenses grew rapidly mainly due to higher bunker price. The company has also had to cut prices to fill capacity.

The cruise liner operator said booking activity is gradually improving as the impact of the Costa Cruises accident is slowly vaning. Despite some uncertainty remaining in Europe, the company worded as if it feels confident enough to narrow guidance ranges for full-year Net Yield to an increase of 2-5% on constant currency rates and 1-4% on reported basis.

Earnings guidance is for EPS of 1.8-2.1 USD (10.1-12 NOK), which was actually a cut from an earlier 1.9 to 2.3 USD estimation. The stock was down around 1% in Oslo to 159.6 NOK but the slide escalated in the U.S. and at close there showed a near 7% decline at 26.92 USD (~154 NOK).