Carriage Services, the funeral home and cemetery consolidator and operator whose latest fact sheet reports that the company operates 155 funeral homes in 24 states and 28 cemeteries in 9 states, reported their 3rd Quarter 2026 financial results on Wednesday.  Here’s the prepared comments from Vice-Chairman and CEO Carlos Quezada that accompanied that report:

 

“We are encouraged by the continued momentum in our funeral business, with same-store funeral contracts increasing 2.3% during the quarter as we close the gap from a slower-than-expected first half. Our field teams continue to execute on our key funeral initiatives to drive volume and average revenue per contract, delivering outstanding results, including funeral volume growth and a 1.9% increase in consolidated average revenue per contract. Additionally, consolidated insurance-funded preneed funeral contracts sold grew 7.0%, reinforcing our confidence in our funeral operating strategy.

In our cemetery business, comparable revenue declined 7.8%, primarily driven by lower preneed sales production. Our operational review identified opportunities to strengthen fundamental sales disciplines, and since the beginning of the third quarter, we have taken targeted actions to reinforce our sales organization and restore the consistent performance we have delivered for over five years. We are encouraged by our early progress, including the introduction of a comprehensive sales performance dashboard and AI-powered tools that enhance visibility, accountability, and proactive management. These new tools position us to drive sustainable sales growth and improved cemetery performance over time.”

 

The report also makes this comment that is not attributable to any individual:

 

“We are revising our full-year expectations to reflect the year-to-date results, including lower-than-anticipated mortality rates during the first half of the year, weaker cemetery preneed performance, additional trust taxes recognized in connection with the sale of certain MLP investments, and revised timing of certain expected acquisitions. While the improvement in our funeral business during the third quarter is encouraging, our updated outlook reflects the financial performance achieved to date and our current assessment of the fourth quarter.”

 

That “updated outlook” reflects a downward revision in the anticipated revenues and earnings-per-share for the company.  The annual anticipated revenue for the company was originally set at a figure of between $435 and $445 million.  The revision that comes with this report now puts the anticipated revenue for 2026 at between $415 and $420 million.

 

In addition, the updated “Earnings-per-Share” is now guided to be between $2.90 and $3.05 per share from an original $3.35 to %3.50 per share.

 

You can access the Carriage Services 3rd Quarter 2026 Report here.

 

Funeral Director Daily take:  Carriage Services is not the first public funeral home company to lower their financial guidance for 2026.  That is probably a statement indicative of the challenges and apparent headwinds in the industry as a whole.  One of the issues that we know funeral homes are having is that of increased expenses.  Carriage is no different in that regard — with their total field costs and expenses for the quarter jumping 3.77% over the same period in 2025.

 

There are  bright spots for Carriage Services as well.   Their reported 3rd Quarter “Funeral Comparable Contracts”, which only includes funeral homes that they have owned for at least one year, indicated a growth of 2.3%.  That comes in an environment where we have heard other funeral homes say that their services are “down” on the quarter and year, possibly due to lower mortality.  An increase in services in a lower mortality environment would mean growing market share.

 

CEO Quezada’s admission that “comparable cemetery revenue declined 7.8%, primarily driven by lower preneed sales production” is concerning, but one might wonder if that is a reflection of a “tighter economy” rather than anything specific to the performance of Carriage Services.  In my book, purchasing cemetery property is truly one of the “discretionary” consumer items to be purchased preneed and if the economy is “tighter” than we think, that could certainly be an explanation for that phenomena. . . . . . or, it could be that Carriage’s sales techniques are not satisfactory in this area and they need to work on improvements.

 

From what I hear, the traditional funeral home business is “tough” right now.  Raising prices is difficult because of the consumer’s increasing lack of apprehension to move to lower cost alternatives such as Direct Cremation with No Services if they feel that the funeral home’s traditional services are more than they would like to pay.  Couple that with inflationary costs that have swept the USA for the past five years and you find traditional funeral homes besieged by “shrinking margins”.

 

Indicative of that battle is the fact that the “Gross Profit to Total Revenue percentage” for the Consolidated Services of Carriage Services for 3Q2026 as compared to 3Q2025 has dropped over 4 percentage points.  3Q2025 “Consolidated Gross Profit to Total Revenue” was 35.27%.  For this past quarter, 3Q2026, that same data point dropped to 31.17%.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• MorTrack is bringing digital chain of custody to Deathcare.  CO – U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• As cremations rise, this Pennsylvania farm offers place to scatter ashes.  York Daily Record (PA)
• Green River Council approves $125,000 cemetery expansion design.  Sweetwater Now (WY)
• From dust to dirt:  Australians to become compost after death.  Big News Network
• “Human composting”laws pass Parliament in Australian first.    Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)

 

Enter your e-mail below to join the 3,482 others who receive Funeral Director Daily articles daily

 

“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”