A number of Carnival Corporation cruise executives sold over 125,000 shares of CCL stock last week, according to forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to SEC forms, CEO Donald (left) sold 62,639 Carnival shares on January 14th for $1,300,000, at an average per price of $21.12 per share. The forms also indicate that Chief Financial Officer David Bernstein (right) sold 49,031 Carnival shares for a total of $1 million, at an average price of $21.12. Arnaldo Perez (below left), General Counsel and Secretary, sold 14,215 Carnival shares for $300,220, on January 14th at a per share average price of $21.12. The total value of the sold stock was over $2,700,000.

Carnival Corporation stock has dropped from a high of over  $71 per share three years ago to a low of around $8.50 in early April of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carnival has refused to respond to our request for a comment as well as  a request from Barron’s, which reported on this news earlier today, to make the executives available for comment on their stock sales.

Carnival Corporation announced today that Carnival Cruise Line is cancelling U.S. departures through April 30, 2021, and cancelling Australian operations through May 19, 2021. In addition, Carnival cancelled European itineraries for the Carnival Legend which were to begin this May through October 31, 2021. The cruise corporation also moved the start date for its new Mardi Gras cruise ship departing from Port Canaveral, with the first cruise now scheduled for May 29, 2021. In my view, it is likely that all of these rescheduled cruises will again be rescheduled.

Carnival is continuing to market its cruise operations on a ninety day basis although it is likely that it will later announce that the cruises will be cancelled. Carnival is essentially operating on debt and cruise fares sold and later converted to  future cruise credit or refunds that it owes to customers.

In my view, it is unlikely that cruising will resume much sooner than 2022.

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Photo credits: Top – Carnival Headquarters –  Coolcaesar at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons / wikimedia; Carnival Corporatio cruise executives – Carnival Corporation.