Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
RCL Consumer Cyclical Travel Services
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.’s revenue for fiscal 2025 (year ended December 2025) was $17.9 billion, up 8.80% from fiscal 2024. In the quarter to June 2026, revenue grew 6.48%, EPS fell 5.39%, free cash flow fell 196.4% and total debt rose 20.1%, each against the same quarter a year earlier. Member of the S&P 500; dividend growth for three consecutive years, revenue growth for three, operating cash flow growth for five.
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Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) Altman Z-score
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s Altman Z-score for fiscal 2025 is 2.18, in the grey zone (1.81–2.99).
Altman Z-score, annual
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Annual newest first
| Period | Altman Z-score | Change (points) |
|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | 2.18 | 0.30 |
| FY2024 | 1.88 | 0.81 |
| FY2023 | 1.06 | 0.89 |
| FY2022 | 0.17 | 0.21 |
| FY2021 | −0.04 | (0.28) |
| FY2020 | 0.24 | (1.54) |
| FY2019 | 1.78 | 0.20 |
| FY2018 | 1.58 | (0.74) |
| FY2017 | 2.32 | 0.62 |
| FY2016 | 1.70 | (0.16) |
How fiscal 2025’s score is made up
| Component | This year | Year before | Result | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Working capital / total assets | (0.24) | — | −0.28 | |
| Retained earnings / total assets | 0.14 | — | 0.20 | |
| EBIT / total assets | 0.12 | — | 0.39 | |
| Market value of equity / total liabilities | 2.41 | — | 1.45 | |
| Sales / total assets | 0.43 | — | 0.43 | |
| Altman Z-score | Grey zone | 2.18 | ||
| Z″ Variant for non-manufacturing and asset-light companies (drops the sales/assets term, uses book equity) | Distress zone | 0.05 | ||
Z and Z″ put Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in different zones: grey zone by Z, distress zone by Z″.
How the Altman Z-score works
Z = 1.2 × working capital ÷ total assets + 1.4 × retained earnings ÷ total assets + 3.3 × EBIT ÷ total assets + 0.6 × market value of equity ÷ total liabilities + 1.0 × revenue ÷ total assets (Altman, 1968). The market value of equity is the close on the last trading day of the fiscal year times weighted basic shares.
Z″ = 6.56 × working capital ÷ total assets + 3.26 × retained earnings ÷ total assets + 6.72 × EBIT ÷ total assets + 1.05 × book equity ÷ total liabilities (Altman, Hartzell and Peck, 1995), the variant for non-manufacturing and asset-light companies.
| Zone | Z | Z″ |
|---|---|---|
| Safe zone | above 2.99 | above 2.60 |
| Grey zone | 1.81–2.99 | 1.10–2.60 |
| Distress zone | below 1.81 | below 1.10 |
Not worked out for banks, insurers and REITs, whose balance sheets the model does not describe, nor when a figure is missing or there is no share price in the week to the fiscal year end.
Altman Z-score against peers
| Company | Altman Z-score |
|---|---|
| BKNG Booking Holdings Inc. compare | 7.1× |
| ABNB Airbnb, Inc. compare | 4.4× |
| TCOM Trip.com Group Limited Sponsored ADR compare | 3.1× |
| RCL Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. | 2.2× |
| VIK Viking Holdings Ltd. compare | 2.1× |
| EXPE Expedia Group, Inc. compare | 1.7× |
| CCL Carnival Corporation compare | 1.2× |
| MMYT MakeMyTrip Limited compare | 0.4× |
| NCLH Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. compare | 0.4× |
What Altman Z-score is
The Altman Z-Score weighs working capital, retained earnings, operating profit, market value and sales against assets and debts to gauge the risk of distress.
1.2 × working capital ÷ total assets + 1.4 × retained earnings ÷ total assets + 3.3 × EBIT ÷ total assets + 0.6 × market value of equity ÷ total liabilities + 1.0 × revenue ÷ total assets
More on RCL
- Revenue
- Net income
- EPS (diluted)
- EBITDA
- Free cash flow
- Operating cash flow
- Gross margin
- Operating margin
- Net margin
- Free cash flow margin
- P/E ratio
- P/S ratio
- P/B ratio
- Price to free cash flow
- EV/EBITDA
- EV/Sales
- EV/FCF
- Return on equity
- Return on assets
- Return on invested capital
- Debt to equity
- Current ratio
- Total debt
- Shares outstanding
- Book value per share
- Revenue growth
- Piotroski F-score
- Beneish M-score
- The full statement