Viking Holdings posted Q2 earnings early Tuesday that met the consensus estimate, as revenue ran ahead of forecasts. But the fast-growing cruise line, which features river cruises and round-the-world adventures, released year-ahead pricing data showing modest year-over-year increases.
VIK stock slipped in early stock market action as investors gauge whether demand for Viking's luxury cruises can stay ahead of its major expansion plans.
Viking Holdings Earnings
Viking Holdings posted adjusted earnings per share of 99 cents, in line with FactSet's consensus estimate. The company said adjusted EPS rose 23.8% from 80 cents a year ago.
Revenue grew 18.5% to $1.880 billion. That growth reflects an addition of five vessels, boosting capacity by 8.8%. Passenger cruise days rose even more, by 10.4%, as occupancy rose to 95.6% from 94.7%. The remaining growth reflected more revenue per passenger cruise day, including higher prices.
Revenue from ocean cruises jumped 11.4% to $713 million. River cruise revenue gained 8.5%, to $1.02 billion.
"We delivered another quarter of great results, further underscoring the strength of our business model and of our core guest demographic," CEO Torstein Hagen said in the earnings statement.
2026 Bookings
Viking provided updates on bookings for its "core products," which include Viking River, Viking Ocean, Viking Expedition and Viking Mississippi.
Viking President Leah Talactac highlighted "positive momentum," including 55% capacity already sold for 2026. That matches the same level of capacity presold for 2025 at the same time last year.
Advance bookings for 2026 total $3.883 billion, up 13% from a year ago. That incorporates a 9% increase in capacity and a 4% increase in payments per passenger cruise day to $866. The latter figure marks a sharp slowdown.
At the same time last year, Viking reported a 10% jump in advance payments per passenger cruise day for 2025 vs. the year-ago period.
Viking's Expansion
On Monday, Viking said it had taken delivery of its newest river ship in Egypt, the Viking Amun, calling it and its sister ship "the most elegant vessels on the Nile." The ship is built specifically to take up to 82 guests on the 12-day Pharaohs & Pyramids tour.
Viking said it is committed to take delivery of an additional 27 river ships by 2028, increasing its total to 112. It also expects to take delivery of 10 more ocean ships by 2031, increasing its total to 23.
VIK Stock
VIK reversed 4% to 57.75 in early Tuesday stock market action. Viking stock finished off 0.8% on Monday, but still 24% above the 48.58 cup-with-handle buy point it steamed past in mid-June, according to MarketSurge.
The move lower on Tuesday morning puts VIK just below its 21-day exponential average but leaves it above its 50-day average, near 55.
Other cruise line stocks are slightly lower, including Royal Caribbean Cruises -0.2%, Carnival -0.1% and Norwegian Cruise Line -0.3%.
Be sure to read IBD's The Big Picture column after each trading day to get the latest on the prevailing stock market trend and what it means for your trading decisions.
