Cruise and exploration company Lindblad Expeditions (NASDAQ:LIND) announced better-than-expected revenue in Q3 CY2024, with sales up 17.1% year on year to $206 million. The company expects the full year's revenue to be around $620 million, close to analysts' estimates. Its GAAP profit of $0.36 per share was also 96.4% above analysts' consensus estimates.
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Sven Lindblad, Chief Executive Officer, said "Lindblad delivered a record third quarter as we continue to generate strong operating results across both our fleet and expanded land experiences portfolio. Looking ahead, this strong growth is poised to continue as current year bookings for future travel have reached record levels. Our focus continues to be on providing high quality travel experiences and strategically expanding our travel platform to capture this demand. We believe we are well positioned to deliver meaningful shareholder value in the years to come. "
Founded by explorer Sven-Olof Lindblad in 1979, Lindblad Expeditions (NASDAQ:LIND) offers cruising experiences to remote destinations in partnership with National Geographic.
Airlines, hotels, resorts, and cruise line companies often sell experiences rather than tangible products, and in the last decade-plus, consumers have slowly shifted from buying "things" (wasteful) to buying "experiences" (memorable). In addition, the internet has introduced new ways of approaching leisure and lodging such as booking homes and longer-term accommodations. Traditional airlines, hotel, resorts, and cruise line companies must innovate to stay relevant in a market rife with innovation.
A company's long-term performance can give signals about its business quality. Even a bad business can shine for one or two quarters, but a top-tier one grows for years. Unfortunately, Lindblad Expeditions's 13% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was mediocre. This shows it couldn't expand in any major way, a tough starting point for our analysis.