Service Corporation International (SCI) reported their 1st Quarter financial results last week and in it we found a lot of information and perspective that we believe is informative and, in our opinion, pretty good news as to how the American public is coming out of the pandemic with their actions on funeral care seemingly indicating that they are in line with how they felt prior to the pandemic. First of all, SCI’s results from the first quarter are indicative of […]
Matthews International reported their Fiscal year 2021 2nd Quarter results last week and with the report we noticed how it is impossible to not notice that their Memorialization business segment which consists of Aurora Casket, Matthews Cremation, and their cemetery, memorial, and mausoleum division, is increasingly leading the company. The other two segments of Matthews International’s operating portfolio consist of what they call their Industrial Technologies segment and their SGK Brand Solutions segment. The company as a whole reported sales […]
For the first time that I can remember since I have followed what is termed the Death Care Index (DCI), the DCI for a period of time has outpaced the standard measures of America’s public companies, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq, and the S & P 500. For the time period of January 1, 2021, through the close of business last Friday, April 30, 2021, the Death Care Index has grown at a pace of 17.7%. The DCI, […]
Carriage Services was the first of our public death care companies to report on their 1st quarter of 2021 (January thru March 2021 numbers) when they did so last week. Even knowing that January 2021 had a high number of additional mortality in the United States because of the number of Covid-19 deaths, you have to look at the Carriage Services financials and be somewhat impressed. When the final mortality numbers come out as to additional Covid-19 related deaths that […]
StoneMor, Inc., the Pennsylvania based consolidator and operator of cemeteries and funeral homes, has had a busy April. We’ve seen Moody’s upgrade their credit rating, we’ve seen insider trading purchases of the stock, and we’ve seen an announcement of refinanced debt. That and more leads a press release from Moody’s to state, “. . . .StoneMor’s increased liquidity position will be used to make strategic acquisitions to increase scale and grow profitability.” These announcements from StoneMor come on the heels […]
We told you yesterday that Carriage Services CEO and Chairman Mel Payne had published a lengthy Letter to Shareholders in early April. In that letter, that you can access here, he painted what we call a somewhat aspirational future for Carriage Services, after first pointing out how they got to where they are today. Today, we plan to offer our interpretation of how the company is being transformed from one that has about 174 funeral homes doing about 200 calls […]
Earlier this month Carriage Services CEO and Chairman Mel Payne put out a lengthy shareholder letter. We found it a great read, not only to catch up with what is happening with Carriage Services, but as an aspirational blueprint, that if followed could lead to success in almost all funeral homes. Payne even points out Investor Business Daily’s 10 Secrets to Success that we have included below. You can access this shareholder letter here. From my point of view, and […]
Back in 1990 I spent about three days north of Vancouver, British Columbia, along the Campbell River fishing for salmon with a group of funeral industry people. One of the days was spent in a small fishing boat with a gentleman about thirty years my senior who had spent almost his entire funeral service career as an acquisition target expert for the large corporate entities. Suffice it to say, I listened and learned a lot about the mergers and acquisition […]
Security National Financial Corporation (SNFC), the Utah based company with segments in the preneed insurance, funeral home assignment, mortuary, and cemetery business, released their 4th Quarter of 2020 and Year End 2020 results last week. The first line from that press release which you can read here, states, “For the twelve months ended December 31, 2020, SNFC’s after-tax earnings from operations increased 410% from $10,894,000 in 2019 to $55,597,000 in 2020, on a 70% increase in revenues to $481,463,000.” To […]
Foundation Partners Group (FPG), the privately held death care consolidator with headquarters in Orlando, Florida, announced earlier this week an acquisition to add to their 160 plus facilities. In this press release you can read that FPG acquired the Klontz Funeral Home and Cremation Services company based in Auburn, Washington. According to the press release, this will give FPG 11 locations in the state of Washington. Here is a United States map showing Foundation Partners locations. According to the press […]
