Finance

Death Care Index takes step backwards in 2022

By Funeral Director Daily / January 3, 2023 /

  It will come as no surprise to any of you who pay attention to the investments in your 401k or IRA accounts, but the Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI) took a step backwards in monetary value during the calendar year 2022.  The DCI now measures five companies with a business component in…

Anthem Partners acquires funeral homes in the San Joaquin Valley

By Funeral Director Daily / December 27, 2022 /

  Anthem Partners, the privately-held operator of funeral homes and cemeteries, announced via press release last week that it had acquired a business that operated three funeral homes in the San Joaquin Valley area of California.  That funeral business was Sterling & Smith Funeral Directors, Inc.  The company has owned and operated facilities in Fresno,…

Here’s a look from one perspective on the mergers and acquisitions market for 2023

By Funeral Director Daily / December 22, 2022 /

  Editor’s Note:  In keeping with Funeral Director Daily’s recent trend at year-end we are bringing you more information on what to look for as we move into 2023.  The following is from (with permission) the Foundation Partners Group (FPG) website and is an interview with FPG’s Zach Mayer, the head of the company’s Nationwide…

Carriage Services announces acquisition and performance plan

By Funeral Director Daily / December 21, 2022 /

  Last week funeral home and cemetery consolidator and operator Carriage Services announced the pending acquisition of Greenlawn Funeral Homes and Cemeteries of Bakersfield, California.  In the same press release, that you can read here, the company took the time to outline what they call their “High Performance and Credit Profile Restoration Plan” (HPCPRP).  …

Activist investors advocate for changes at Matthews

By Funeral Director Daily / December 20, 2022 /

  The first sentence from this article in The Star says all that needs to be said about what changes an investor group at Matthews International wants to take place, “Activist investor Barington Capital Group has built a stake in Matthews International Corp and argues the company needs to refresh its board, cut costs and…

StoneMor has new CEO

By Funeral Director Daily / December 13, 2022 /

Joe Redling led cemetery and funeral home operator StoneMor through a time of transition.  That transition culminated with the public company being taken private in a buy-out from Axar Capital Management in early November 2022.  While the company is now a private enterprise concern and Funeral Director Daily has no access to its financial operations,…

Rollings Funeral Service adds large New York firm

By Funeral Director Daily / December 5, 2022 /

We learned last week that Georgia based Rollings Funeral Service completed the acquisition of a New York state firm that does close to 1,000 services annually and also serves the needs of pet owners by completing the cremation of about 600 pets annually.    Following is the press release from Rollings Funeral Service that announced…

Park Lawn Corporation adds to Kansas City cluster

By Funeral Director Daily / December 1, 2022 /

It was announced in a recent press release that you can access here that funeral home and cemetery operator Park Lawn Corporation (PLC) has made another acquisition in the greater Kansas City market.  Just this week they have announced that they have acquired substantially all of the assets of the aptly named Park Lawn Funeral…

Matthews: Memorialization sales rise, adjusted EBITDA drops for the year

By Funeral Director Daily / November 29, 2022 /

Matthews International, parent company of Matthews Cremation and Aurora Casket, announced their Fiscal Year 4th Quarter and Year End 2022 results last week.  President and CEO Joseph C. Bartolacci said this in the opening statements of the report, “I am pleased with our operating results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30,…

Death Care Index mirrors NASDAQ on the year

By Funeral Director Daily / November 28, 2022 /

As we move into the final month of the calendar year it seems like no one has the financial markets figured out.  In a year of rising inflation and rising interest rates, raised with the intention of curbing the inflation, the stock market indices have looked confused as to whether the worst is past or…