STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Carnival boosted by upgrades after results

Shares in Carnival (LSE: CCL.L - news) rise 4.8 percent to a three-month high and the top of Britain's FTSE 100 as strong results from the cruise operator make analysts more optimistic that firm is restoring its reputation after a series of incidents.

Volume on the stock - which trades at 2,414 pence, extending a sharp rise in the previous session - is close to half its full-day average for the past three months at 1005 GMT, compared to a fifth of the average for the FTSE 100.

Carnival, which has been struggling to restore its reputation and profitability following a series of mishaps on its ships, including the capsize of the Costa Concordia in 2012, reported an unexpected quarterly profit on Thursday and said booking volumes for first three quarters of 2014 are running well ahead of last year's levels at lower prices.

"Biggest upside from the call was hearing Costa (NasdaqGM: ATX - news) brand...saw yields increase double-digits," UBS (Xetra: UB0BL6 - news) says in a note, upgrading the stock to "buy" from "neutral" and raising its target to 2,500 pence from 2,100 pence.

"Aside from benefit to yields...more important is the idea that if Costa can recover to that degree, then (the company) should also be able to recover from Carnival brand's image issues."

Natixis (Paris: FR0000120685 - news) also upgrades the stock, to "neutral" from "reduce", while raising its target price to 2,300 pence from 2,000 pence.

Analyst had been broadly cutting their recommendations on Carnival since the Concordia incident in early 2012, pushing the median recommendation to 3.1, meaning "hold", from 2.2, which corresponds to "buy", Datastream data shows. The median recommendation on STOXX Europe 600 stocks is 2.6.

Reuters messaging rm://francesco.canepa.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net