Finance

Carriage Services 2nd Quarter Earnings Call: Dealing with lower volumes

By Funeral Director Daily / August 17, 2026 /

  On August 6, Carriage Services held their quarterly earnings call to give their opinion of the company’s 2nd Quarter 2026 results and answer questions from analysts who cover the company.  We’re ten days removed from that date, but the comments of the Carriage Services’ management team are still relative so we present you with…

Matthews International Fiscal 3Q report: Challenges seem to be everywhere

By Funeral Director Daily / August 11, 2026 /

  You don’t have to rely on my perception to come to the conclusion about the headline for this article. . . . Here are the prepared remarks from Matthews International’s CEO Joseph Bartolacci as presented in the company’s fiscal 3rd Quarter report of 2026 which you can access here:   “The fiscal 2026 third…

Carriage Services 2nd Quarter 2026 Report: Flat Operations

By Funeral Director Daily / August 10, 2026 /

  When I first looked at the 2nd Quarter Financial Report of funeral home and cemetery operator Carriage Services one word came to mind.  “Flat”.   Look at some of the 2Q2026 numbers when compared to 2Q2025 numbers and you may see what I mean.   Total Revenue:  $102.9 million in 2Q2026 as compared to…

SCI Earnings Call: SCI Execs comment, Artificial Intelligence tries to pull it together

By Funeral Director Daily / August 4, 2026 /

    On Thursday, July 30, Service Corporation International (SCI) held their quarterly earnings call to give their opinion of the company’s 2nd Quarter 2026 results and answer questions from analysts who cover the company.   Funeral Director Daily receives a transcript of the entire conversation through our subscription with Seeking Alpha.  You can access…

SCI 2Q 2026 Report: I see higher revenues, but funeral margins, gross profits challenged

By Funeral Director Daily / July 31, 2026 /

    Service Corporation International (SCI) reported their 2nd Quarter of 2026 on July 29 — which happened to be a bad day on Wall Street.  On that day the Dow Jones Index dropped 2.19%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.52%, and the NASDAQ dropped 1.74%.  It was a day where the Federal Reserve held tight…

Can “Roll-ups” work in a “Price-Sensitive” environment

By Funeral Director Daily / July 24, 2026 /

  Earlier his week I heard from a couple of people who notified me that Foundation Partners Group (FPG) apparently had a recent round of employee layoffs. That seems to be confirmed by employee and now former employee posts on Reddit and other conversational websites.  One of those individuals sent me this comment that I…

Somebody finally said it, “Industry revenue for Death Care is estimated to drop”

By Funeral Director Daily / July 23, 2026 /

  Over the years that I owned and operated a funeral home I saw an increasing cremation percentage almost every year.  And, like most funeral homes, my charges for traditional burial were more than my charges for any type of cremation.   If one did not increase pricing, that dynamic in itself would lead to…

Private Equity: Is there a slump in redemptions going on?

By Funeral Director Daily / July 17, 2026 /

  Private Equity (PE) ownership in the funeral, cremation, cemetery, casket, and Death Care supply industry has been a hot topic over the past couple of years.  Private Equity companies have been purchasing, aiding in the purchasing, or providing capital to many of the companies in Death Care over the past several years.   This…

Park Lawn adds another Oklahoma funeral home to their group

By Funeral Director Daily / July 13, 2026 /

  History will tell us that the oil boom in Oklahoma began in 1897 when a massive discovery of oil was discovered near Bartlesville.   Since December 2025 the folks at Park Lawn Corporation seem to have found their own “boom” in Oklahoma.  We received this press release last week announcing that Park Lawn Corporation…

Pinnacle Funeral Service makes another acquisition

By Funeral Director Daily / July 8, 2026 /

  We learned earlier this week that Pinnacle Funeral Service had acquired Gent Funeral Home & Cremation Services of Alton, Illinois.  You can learn more about the acquisition from this article on the Pinnacle Funeral Service website.   According to the information received, Gent Funeral Home & Cremation Services has served their community for over…