Carnival, Blackberry, Carmax: Trending tickers

Cruise operator Carnival Corporation (CCL) shares are trading higher Thursday after posting a narrower-than-forecast fourth-quarter loss alongside better-than-expected revenue totals. The stock has surged around 140% year-to-date in 2023.

BlackBerry (BB) shares plunged Thursday afternoon after the company provided light fourth-quarter revenue guidance. This capped a tumultuous year which saw executive and strategy shifts for the former mobile phone maker now focused on cybersecurity, leading to eight analyst hold ratings presently.

Used vehicle retailer CarMax (KMX) reported mixed results after beating third-quarter EPS estimates but missing consensus revenue forecasts.

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Video Transcript

JOSH LIPTON: All right. Let's get to some trending tickers now shares of cruise liner, Carnival, trading higher today. That's after posting a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, while revenue for the fourth quarter beating estimates. You can see that pop about 5% in today's trade.

What a year for this stock, Julie. It's up about 140% in 2023. And that move, by the way, is not discouraging the Street. About 70% of analysts, even after this move, think this is a name you should buy. So they see obviously better times ahead. Bottom line, Q4 report clearly pleasing investors. The adjusted loss per share, narrower than expected. They did issue a forecast for Q1 profit guidance that was lower than some on the Street had been looking for. But perhaps, folks are just looking past that as maybe a conservative.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. I mean, that seems to be what analysts are saying about that first quarter guide. What's remarkable here, what's notable here is how much visibility this company and many of the other cruise lines as well have into 2024. Bookings are already coming in hot, right? And so the company says nearly 2/3 of their occupancy is already booked for 2024 at considerably higher prices, they said, in the statement in constant currency.

So people are booking the trips already for 2024. They're booking them at higher prices than they have been. And so, you know, that gives them a lot of sort of runway into 2024.

JOSH LIPTON: And we talk-- we talk all the time about the consumer and some of these challenges or potential headwinds slowing economy and dwindling savings. But this is one company that's seeing strong demand.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. I mean, I think what a lot of the cruise lines will say is that they-- even though the price is high, as long as they can convince their consumers that they are offering a value for that money, that you get your place to say, you get your food, you get all the entertainment, yada, yada, yada for one price, that at least is the proposition that they are attempting to offer.

And many of the cruise lines seem to be succeeding in that endeavor. We are going to talk, as we mentioned, to Josh Weinstein, who is the CEO, coming up a little bit later in the show.

Meantime, let's also take a look at shares of BlackBerry. They are going decidedly in the opposite direction, down 13.5% today on the company's fourth quarter forecast here. It's the biggest one-day slide. It's seen its least since early October here.

And the company says that it plans to try to get to break even, but that it's going to be tricky perhaps, according to analysts, because of the headwinds that it has seen. In this past third quarter, the company's revenue did rise by 3.6% year-over-year. It came in a little bit shy of estimates as well. So, you know, BlackBerry also has had a lot of twists and turns this year.

JOSH LIPTON: In the c-suite changes.

JULIE HYMAN: In the c-suite changes, in strategy. And it looks like investors are kind of struggling with that.

JOSH LIPTON: There are some analysts, it's interesting, that they do and they talk about the new CEO there now, John Giamatteo. And they do like the strategy, so reducing costs and separating the IoT and cybersecurity businesses into these standalone business units. But I think there is some wait-and-see among them as well, more proof and execution. They'll talk about, listen, let's see some profitable growth trends for the cybersecurity business. And in the meantime, they're on hold. In fact, most analysts covering BlackBerry think you'd be smart to-- don't think you'd be smart to buy it here, about eight holds, one by, one sell.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. Exactly.

JOSH LIPTON: All right. Moving on here finally, shares of CarMax, let's check out that one, rising today. It's despite a mixed third-quarter report profit beat overshadowing a miss on revenue. So this one was interesting, sort of mixed here, Julie. Q3 report beat analyst expectations.

Adjusted EPS, $0.52, so that was better than what Street was looking for, which was closer to 42. Revenue, 6.15 billion in the quarter, that did undershoot what the Street had wanted to see. I think the analysts were close at around $6.3 billion. Sounds, though, like they were able, and here's the key, to squeeze more profit out of the vehicles.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. It looks like people were not so sanguine about the sales, but they were happier about earnings per share. Analyst Sharon Zackfia from William Blair said that EPS got back to growth for the first time in two years. So even though the comps didn't look good, they're trying to manage what costs they can. And the analyst community at least seems to be pretty happy about that. And the stock is up. So, obviously, people who are trading the stock seem to be happy about it as well.

But, obviously, we know the backdrop for vehicle sales has been rocky at best over the course of the year. And most of the car makers don't seem to be that psyched about next year either.

JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. I think what helps here also, listen, they're in cost-cutting mode, as you mentioned. Also capital return, that never hurts, resume this stock repurchase plan. So that'll usually get investors' attention as well.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes, it will.