UPDATE 1-Carnival cuts full-year profit, revenue forecast
* Cuts earnings forecast to $1.80-$2.10/shr vs $2.20-$2.40
* Stock down 2.3 percent
* Carnival cruise cancels stop Friday after technical issue
March 15 (Reuters) - Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise operator, swung to a quarterly profit on Friday but posted lower revenue per cabin and cut its profit and revenue forecast for the year, citing weakness in Europe and pricing promotions.
Its shares fell 2.3 percent to $34.90.
Carnival, which operates lines including Holland America, Costa, and its namesake line, is grappling with a series of recent headline-grabbing mishaps involving its ships that have dented demand for its vacations.
Earlier this week, the company cut short a Caribbean cruise after an engine problem idled its Carnival Dream ship in St. Maarten. Last month, its Carnival Triumph was adrift for days in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine fire, and passengers described an overpowering stench as toilets overflowed.
In the most recent incident involving a Carnival ship, the Carnival Dream canceled a scheduled stop on Friday on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, to return to its home port in Tampa after technical difficulties affected its sailing speed.
The company now expects net revenue yields to be flat this year, versus an earlier forecast that they would rise 1 percent to 2 percent.
Carnival said the lower forecast stemmed from weak demand in Europe, the need to offer price promotions for its flagship brand and weaker-than-expected on-board revenues.
Carnival now expects full-year earnings of $1.80 to $2.10 per share, down from its earlier forecast of $2.20 and $2.40, mostly because of the expenses to fix the Triumph and lost bookings.
The company will need to emphasize its response to safety problems in its marketing if it wants bookings and pricing to return to normal levels, one analyst said.
"It's really time to figure how they want to market this. It has to be more about safety," Morningstar analyst Jaime Katz told Reuters. "You need sail the ships full."
Carnival reported net income of $37 million, or 5 cents per share, on revenue of $3.59 billion for the first quarter ended Feb. 28. Net revenue yields fell 2.3 percent in the period.
A year earlier, it posted a loss of $139 million, or 18 cents share on revenue of $3.58 billion. In January 2012, Carnival's Costa Concordia ran aground off the Italian coast killing 32 people. The accident dampened demand for months.