Royal Caribbean Cruises ‘ 26% decline an early August peak is overdone, and it’s time to buy the stock, according to Bank of America. The bank upgraded the cruise line operator to buy from neutral. It also maintained its price target of $330, which indicates an almost 36% gain from Friday’s close. While concerns of higher oil prices — and their implications both for the company’s balance sheet as well as leisure spending by consumers — have weighed on the stock this year, analyst Andrew Didora said in a Monday note that travel demand has been strong. “Travel spend has grown mid- to high-single digits since February and cruise spend reaccelerated to mid-teens growth in July and August,” Didora wrote in the note. “Further, commentary from RCL at our recent conference spoke of steady demand and gave us comfort in at least 4% net yield growth in 4Q26 (strongest in industry) with the ability to guide to its historical net yield algorithm of +2-3% in 2027.” RCL 3M mountain Royal Caribbean Cruises 3-month. The stock is also 26% below its Aug. 5 closing peak. Royal Caribbean also fell more than 1% last week — its seventh consecutive weekly pullback — following news that the company was going to take a 50% equity stake in Caribbean resort chain Sandals. Didora said Sandals can generate stronger growth with Royal Caribbean’s expertise, and that could grow the latter’s EBITDA by the low- to mid-teens, the analyst estimated. Risks remain for the stock, Didora noted. Macroeconomic pressures could derail the outlook, though the analyst said that rising interest rates typically aren’t correlated with any reaction by Royal Caribbean’s stock. “The macro is a risk, but travel spend has been very strong, estimates seem reasonable, and RCL is well positioned to capture further travel share,” he said in the note. Shares were higher by 1% following the upgrade, which was also supported by Deutsche Bank also hiking its rating to buy as well.
