Carnival is the world’s largest operator of cruise ships and has been in in the news as another one of its ships had equipment difficulty and stopped working. The headline which the reader saw was a reminder of the song “Another One Bites the Dust” As the operator of more ships than anyone else, the odds are if there is a ship with equipment difficulty, the chances of the ship being a Carnival one is high. It just seems that after years of very few mechincal difficulties, there has been more this year. It may just be a bad stream of luck,  although it seems the company is doing the proper thing – the company announced a comprehensive review of all ships in the fleet as well as offering compensation to passengers.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies make mistakes or have things that go wrong. The issue is always  how does the company react? If the company seemingly does the right things from the public’s point of view, the public will continue to support the company. If the company tries to put its head in the sand or blame someone else, then a different reaction from the public and investors is expected. From the point of investments, when a company faces a number of mishaps, the shares will go down as Carnival’s correctly has. The next question is this a buying opportunity? holding opportunity? or waiting opportunity. As this is Carnival’s busiest season, perhaps it is a later opportunity.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions