Cruise industry bellwether Carnival (NYSE: CCL) beat on earnings this morning (sorta-kinda), sparking a revival in a stock that had lost 19% of its value since the start of December -- and lifting Carnival shares a respectable 5.3% through 12:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.

Analysts had worried that Carnival would report an $0.87 per-share loss on total sales of $3.9 billion for Q4 2022. As it turned out, Carnival missed on that revenue prediction, delivering sales of only $3.8 billion -- but Carnival did a bit better on earnings, losing "only" $0.85 per share.  

That's the good news. The bad news is that $0.85 earnings number (and presumably the $0.87 estimate as well) were both pro forma numbers. When calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), Carnival's Q4 loss was nearly 50% bigger -- $1.27 per share. On the plus side, that was less than the $2.31 per share, based on GAAP, that Carnival lost a year ago.

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Source Fool.com