Equity Briefing Carnival Crest Nicholson Nike FedEx and Blackberry

Want the latest news to come to you?

You can get the latest market-moving news and incisive insight sent straight to your inbox every day, including the Equity Briefing, by subscribing to receive our market commentary updates.

Click here to subscribe.

Carnival

Carnival, the largest cruise company in the world, will release a second-quarter trading update this afternoon at 1500 BST (1000 EDT).

The cruise industry has been among the worst-hit by the pandemic and the recovery will be gradual. Eight of Carnival’s brands have now announced plans to resume operations across the US, Caribbean and Europe this year, but it has warned it is taking a ‘gradual, phased-in approach’.

This means the focus is entirely on the outlook. The recovery potential of Carnival has seen its shares rise over 37% since the start of 2021, but they remain well below their pre-pandemic levels.  

Analysts are expecting for business to have picked up compared to the previous three months but for revenue to remain minimal with cruises only just starting to resume. The GAAP net loss is expected to remain broadly flat at $1.86 billion from $1.97 billion the year before, while the adjusted net loss should follow at $1.88 billion.

Crest Nicholson

Beforehand, Crest Nicholson will be releasing interim results covering the six months to the end of April this morning.

The housebuilder was initially disrupted when the pandemic hit but has seen activity improve as time has gone on, partly thanks to construction being allowed to continue during lockdown, the Stamp Duty holiday and the introduction of new 95% mortgages to bring more demand into an already undersupplied market.

Its sale rate jumped to 0.81 in the eight weeks to March 22 from 0.59 in the last financial year, while its order book was over 70% covered compared to just 55% before. Investors will hope it has been able to continue to capitalise on the strong market fundamentals.

Watch for any changes to the outlook after Crest Nicholson raised its full-year guidance in March and said it expected to deliver annual adjusted pretax profit of around £85 million. Notably, it has since said it will book a further £10 million boost to profit after selling its interest in the Longcross film studio last month. That will mark a significant improvement from the £45.9 million profit reported in the last financial year, but still below the £121.1 million reported the year before prior to when the pandemic hit.

Nike, FedEx and Blackberry

A number of stocks will release results after US markets close later today.

Nike will be releasing fourth-quarter results and analysts are expecting revenue to jump to just over $11.00 billion from only $6.31 billion the year before and for it to turn to diluted earnings per share of $0.51 from a $0.51 loss as it comes up against weak comparatives. A strong performance is expected in North America but there are concerns about how sales have fared in China since it was hit by a boycott. Share buybacks are also scheduled to resume.

FedEx will also report fourth-quarter results and Wall Street anticipates revenue will rise to $21.5 billion from $17.4 billion the year before and for adjusted EPS to almost double to $4.99 from $2.53. FedEx has said it expects the boom in demand from the pandemic to be sustainable, but there are concerns about whether it could unwind as stores reopen while rising costs threaten profitability.

We will also have first-quarter results from Blackberry and Wall Street is expecting revenue to fall to $171.25 million from $214.0 million the year before, and for it to turn to a non-GAAP loss per share of $0.05 from earnings of $0.02.

How to trade top stocks

You can trade a variety of stocks with City Index by following these four steps:

1. Open a City Index account, or log-in if you’re already a customer.
2. Search for the company you want to trade in our award-winning platform
3. Choose your position and size, and your stop and limit levels
4. Place the trade