Matthews International Corporation reported earnings on January 25.  The consolidated company – which operates worldwide in three divisions which includes a division labeled “Memorialization” and includes Matthews Cremation Products and Aurora Casket among others – recorded an increase in sales of over $20 million system-wide for their fiscal year’s 1st Quarter.  They also produced non-GAAP per share earnings of $0.64 per share while analysts had estimated only $ 0.58 per share.

It should be mentioned, however, that last years !st Quarter non-GAAP earnings came in at $ 0.66 per share.

Matthews recorded total sales for the company in the 1st Quarter 2018, which ended December 31, 2017,  of $369.5 million as compared to last years sales for the same period of $349 million.  According to the company press release which you can read here sales were positively impacted by recent acquisitions, marking products and cremation equipment and changes in foreign currency rates.  Foreign currency rates alone had a positive impact of $7.4 million.

The company also reported that the SGK Brand Solutions Division had a sales increase of 16.1% and the Industrial Technologies segment had a sales increase of 18.9%.  The Memorialization segment actually had a slight sales decline to $144.9 million as compared to last years 1st Quarter sales of $145.6 million.  According to the release “Higher sales of cremation equipment and related products were offset by lower sales volumes of caskets and memorials, reflecting an estimated decline in U.S. casketed deaths”.

Joseph C. Bartolacci, President and CEO explained about the Memorialization segment, “Current quarter sales volumes of caskets and memorial products were lower than a year ago reflecting the estimated decline in U.S. casketed deaths.  In addition, residual impact of recent hurricanes unfavorably affected sales, particularly pre-need memorial sales.  However, as we continue our efforts to grow sales in the cremation market, higher sales of cremation equipment and related products, partially offset the impact of lower memorial and casket sales volume.  Also, our integration of the Aurora acquisition remains on track.”

Related— On January 25, 2018, Matthews International Corporation announced that its Board of Directors declared a dividend of $ 0.19 on the company stock.  The dividend is payable February 19, 2018, to holders of record as of February 5, 2018.

As of this writing (1/30/18) Matthews International common stocks sits at $55.40 per share which equates the above mentioned dividend – given quarterly- to a 1.37% annual yield.

The stock value at $55.40 is an increase of the stock value on December 31, 2017 – which was $52.80 at that time – of 4.9%.

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