JP Morgan analyst Matthew Boss had upgraded shares of Carnival Corporation to Overweight from Neutral, and raised target prices of Carnival, Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd (NCLH), Streetinsider.com reports. Shares in listed major cruise shipping groups staged strong gains as a result.

Boss increased the price target on Carnival Corporation stock to $16 from $11 in a note to clients Monday, while he also raised the Royal Caribbean price target to $103 from $100 and the NCLH target to $16 from $15 per share.

At mid-morning US east coast time, shares in Carnival Corporation traded almost 14% higher at $14.89, while Carnival plc in London had gained 11.1% to £10.10. Royal Caribbean was 3.3% higher at $94.33 and NCLH  gained 8.8% to trade at $18.69

Boss was cited as saying that his firm hosted senior management meetings with Carnival, Norwegian, and Royal Caribbean as part of its "Come Cruise w/ Us" event in Miami.

"Importantly, the two-fold takeaway from the 'Big 3' was (1) bullish tone on current trends (& 1H24 bookings) with zero signs of momentum slowing (& no change in historical lead indicators) as pent-up loyalist demand a year ago transitions to new-to-cruise strength today and (2) increased balance sheet flexibility w/ ample liquidity for debt pay-down (& no plans for equity issuance across the Big 3)," the analyst reportedly wrote.

He added that a key theme across from the visits was all management teams speaking about continued demand momentum with "no signs of softness cited in any single forward indicator by historical measure."

"Importantly, management teams broadly cited today's booking curve as in the sweet spot (historically, ~6-9 months) providing ~85% visibility into 2023 bookings and ~25% into 2024 as of today by our math (farther out visibility = key difference from our broader retail coverage)," the report concluded.