Royal Caribbean (RCL) Shares Fall Amid Sector-Wide Concerns: What’s Going On? – Royal Caribbean Gr (NYSE:RCL)

Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL fell during Wednesday’s session following weaker-than-expected earnings from rival Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd NCLH, raising fresh concerns over demand trends and pricing power across the cruise industry.

Despite no material changes in Royal Caribbean’s own financial outlook, investor sentiment turned risk-averse amid signs of softening macroeconomic conditions and slowing growth in the sector.

What To Know: Norwegian’s first-quarter 2025 earnings miss — a 22% shortfall in EPS estimates and a nearly 3% year-over-year revenue decline — fueled fears that the post-pandemic cruise recovery may be plateauing.

Read Also: What’s Going On With Carnival Stock Following Norwegian Cruise Line Earnings?

Royal Caribbean, the world’s second-largest cruise operator, is particularly exposed to such sentiment shifts given its aggressive capacity expansion, including new flagship vessels Icon of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas, both recently launched.

While Royal Caribbean recently raised its 2025 EPS guidance to $10.25–$10.50, investors are now questioning whether forward bookings and pricing strength can hold amid a weakening U.S. economy, rising recession odds, and signs of a flattening yield curve in the cruise space.

With Norwegian also citing cost pressures, foreign exchange headwinds and a dip in net yield guidance, Royal Caribbean stock dropped 2.3% to $211.52 Wednesday afternoon.

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How To Buy RCL Stock

By now you’re likely curious about how to participate in the market for Royal Caribbean – be it to purchase shares, or even attempt to bet against the company.

Buying shares is typically done through a brokerage account. You can find a list of possible trading platforms here. Many will allow you to buy “fractional shares,” which allows you to own portions of stock without buying an entire share.

In the case of Royal Caribbean, which is trading at $211.09 as of publishing time, $100 would buy you 0.47 shares of stock.

If you’re looking to bet against a company, the process is more complex. You’ll need access to an options trading platform, or a broker who will allow you to “go short” a share of stock by lending you the shares to sell. The process of shorting a stock can be found at this resource. Otherwise, if your broker allows you to trade options, you can either buy a put option, or sell a call option at a strike price above where shares are currently trading – either way it allows you to profit off of the share price decline.

According to data from Benzinga Pro, RCL has a 52-week high of $277.08 and a 52-week low of $130.08.