Carnival Corporation has announced United States GAAP net income for the full year of $3.2 billion for 2018, or $4.44 diluted earnings per share.

The figures compare to $2.6 billion, or $3.59 diluted earnings per share, for the prior year. Carnival Corporation chief executive, Arnold Donald, noted: “We delivered strong fourth-quarter earnings and record adjusted fourth-quarter earnings to top off a record-breaking year.

“In 2018, we grew net cruise revenue (constant currency) over five percent, achieving the highest revenue yields (constant currency) in our company’s history, and producing double-digit adjusted earnings growth despite a significant drag from fuel and currency.

“More importantly, we achieved a double-digit return on invested capital in line with the target we established five years ago.

“I thank our 120,000 team members around the globe who encountered multiple headwinds and still delivered for our shareholders a more than doubling of return on invested capital in just five years, as well as our valued travel agent partners whose strong support enabled these record results.”

Full-year 2018 adjusted net income of $3 billion, or $4.26 adjusted earnings per share, was higher than the adjusted net income of $2.8 billion, or $3.82 adjusted earnings per share, for the full year 2017.

Revenues for the full year 2018 were $18.9 billion, $1.4 billion higher than the $17.5 billion in the prior year. However, Carnival provided a forecast for 2019 that fell below expectations.

Despite stating that “cumulative advance bookings for full-year 2019 are considerably ahead of the prior year,” guidance for an increase in net cruise revenues of 5.5 percent and net earnings of $4.65 a share saw stock prices slump nearly ten percent.