Nate C

Royal Caribbean, Carnival: Deals on the Open Sea

This whole article makes no sense, which is a result of incorrect data.

1. The authors says that "Royal’s revenue is 39% higher than Carnivals $4.3B annually." THIS IS NOT TRUE. According to Yahoo finance Carnival had revenue of 11.8 billion for fiscal 2006. Royal's was 5.2 billion for fiscal 2006.

2. Carnival is the superior company. They boast profit margins of 19% while Royal's is around 10%.

3. Carnival is more shareholder friendly. They currently yield 3.6% versus Royal's 1.5%.

4. Royal has too much debt currently 90% debt-to-equity compared to Carnival which is below 60%. Carnival has a better balance sheet which allows it to both reward shareholders through dividends and toinvest in future ships to fuel growth.