Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (NYSE:RCL) shares are trading lower Thursday afternoon as crude hovers near six-month highs, reviving worries about fuel costs for cruise operators. Here’s what investors need to know.
- Royal Caribbean Group stock is showing weakness. What’s driving RCL stock lower?
Why Higher Oil Is A Headwind For RCL
Rising oil prices pressure cruise stocks broadly and marine fuel is one of the largest variable costs for cruise lines. When crude spikes, bunker fuel prices typically move in tandem. Cruise operators can try to offset this with higher ticket prices and onboard spending, but those levers take time and face demand elasticity.
Royal Caribbean also operates with a sizable debt load, so any unhedged fuel shock flows quickly into earnings, leverage ratios and free cash-flow expectations. The result is that a sustained move in oil toward multi-month highs can compress valuation multiples and trigger sharper downside in RCL as investors re-price its profit outlook.
Cluster Of Insider Share Sales
Royal Caribbean is seeing a cluster of insider sales. Director Arne Alexander Wilhelmsen sold 280,000 shares at a weighted average near $325, while recent Form 4s show Celebrity Cruises president Laura Bethge and director Maritza Gomez Montiel each trimming positions at prices in the mid-$320s.
Form 4 filings after Wednesday’s close show these were ordinary open-market sales with no sign of a pre-set Rule 10b5-1 plan, meaning the insiders appear to have chosen the timing themselves rather than selling automatically.
RCL Stock Trading Below 20-Day SMA
Technical indicators suggest that the stock is facing pressure, as it trades 2.7% below its 20-day simple moving average (SMA) and 4.3% above its 50-day SMA.
The stock has increased 17.59% over the past 12 months, indicating a longer-term uptrend, but it is currently positioned closer to its 52-week highs than lows.
The RSI is at 51.92, which is considered neutral territory, suggesting that the stock is neither overbought nor oversold. Meanwhile, MACD is at 9.8106, below its signal line at 11.8554, indicating bearish pressure on the stock.
The combination of neutral RSI and bearish MACD suggests mixed momentum.
- Key Resistance: $356.00
- Key Support: $276.50
RCL Analyst Ratings
The stock carries a Buy Rating with an average price target of $355.56. Recent analyst moves include:
- Tigress Financial: Buy (Raises Target to $425.00) (Feb. 6)
- Morgan Stanley: Equal-Weight (Raises Target to $330.00) (Feb. 3)
- Citigroup: Buy (Raises Target to $398.00) (Feb. 2)
RCL Shares Drop Thursday Afternoon
RCL Price Action: Royal Caribbean Group shares were down 2.61% at $310.50 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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