Financial Comparison: Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality (NYSE:PRSU) & Carnival (NYSE:CUK)

Carnival (NYSE:CUK) and Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality (NYSE:PRSU) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Carnival and Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Carnival	0	1	1	0	2.50
Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality	0	2	3	0	2.60

Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality has a consensus target price of $34.00, indicating a potential downside of 3.61%. Given Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality is more favorable than Carnival.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Carnival and Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Carnival	$26.62 billion	0.18	$2.76 billion	$2.00	12.68
Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality	$452.42 million	2.18	$22.67 million	$0.78	45.22

Carnival has higher revenue and earnings than Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality. Carnival is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Carnival has a beta of 2.46, indicating that its stock price is 146% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

23.8% of Carnival shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.9% of Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Carnival shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Carnival and Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Carnival	10.37%	28.39%	6.09%
Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality	5.01%	5.23%	3.63%

About Carnival

Carnival Plc operates as a global cruise and vacation company. The firm offers holiday and vacation products to a customer base that is broadly varied in terms of cultures, languages and leisure-time preferences. It operates through the North America and Australia (NAA), Europe and Asia (EA), Cruise Support, and Tour and Other segments. The NAA segment includes Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, P and O Cruises (Australia), Princess and Seabourn. The EA segment includes AIDA, Costa, Cunard, and P and O Cruises (UK). The Cruise Support segment includes a portfolio of port destinations and other services, all of which are operated for the benefit of cruise brands. The Tour and Other segment represents the hotel and transportation operations of Holland America Princess Alaska Tours and other operations. The company was founded on July 19, 2000 and is headquartered in Southampton, the United Kingdom.

About Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality

Pursuit Attractions & Hospitality, Inc. engages in the provision of hospitality and leisure activities, experiential marketing, and live events. It operates through the following segments: Pursuit, Spiro, and GES Exhibitions. The Pursuit segment provides travel experiences that include recreational attractions, unique hotels and lodges, food and beverage, retail, sightseeing, and ground transportation services. The Spiro segment is an experiential marketing agency that partners with brands around the world to manage and elevate their global experiential marketing activities. The GES Exhibitions segment is a global exhibition services company that partners with exhibition and conference organizers as a full-service provider of strategic and logistics solutions to manage the complexity of their shows. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Denver, CO.