Norwegian Cruise Line stock rises after JPMorgan upgrades it to ‘Overweight.’

Takeaways

• JPMorgan upgraded Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings as management downplayed worries about a decline in travel demand.
• The analysts raised their rating on the stock to "overweight" from "neutral."
• JPMorgan said the decision came after two Norwegian executives said the cruise line is not seeing any "detectable change" in consumer demand despite "noise" in the industry.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ (NCLH), shares rose Monday after JPMorgan upgraded it. The stock had been downgraded by the cruise operator executives who dismissed warnings of a decline in travel demand.

In a note to clients, JPMorgan explained that it raised its rating to  "overweight" from "neutral" after hosting CFO Mark Kempa and Head of Investor Relations Sarah Inmon at the bank's 2025 Gaming, Lodging, Restaurant & Leisure Conference in Las Vegas. 

The analysts said that the "definitive message" from the pair was that there was "zero detectable change in demand behavior to date despite 'noise' in the macro backdrop." That included "no change in booking curves to indicate irregular patterns, no cracks in onboard spend (including in high discretionary purchase categories of the Spa & Casino), and no change in cancellation rates."

JPMorgan said that Kempa and Inmon pointed out that despite recent headlines about tariffs, the management has not seen any changes in consumer spending patterns. The carrier also isn’t worried about the new taxes for the industry that were hinted last month by Commerce Sec. Howard Lutnick.

The news lifted the shares of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings by nearly 3%, putting them in positive territory for the past year.