Finance

Matthews reports 1st Qtr 2019. . . . Memorialization segment increases sales

By Funeral Director Daily / February 12, 2019 /

On January 31 Matthews International, parent company of Matthews Cremation and Aurora Casket, reported its first quarter of fiscal year 2019 which covers the period of October 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018.  You can read the press release from Matthews here. As a company the consolidated sales totaled $374.2 million as compared to $369.5…

Hillenbrand revenue up, Batesville revenue down, CEO Raver calls Batesville “Lean and Flexible”

By Funeral Director Daily / February 7, 2019 /

Multi-faceted conglomerate Hillenbrand Industries, parent of death care company Batesville, reported higher revenue year over year for their 1st Quarter which ended on December 31.  Hillenbrand, as a whole, reported revenue for the quarter of $410 million which is 3% higher than one year ago.  Hillenbrand’s Processed Equipment Group (PEG) reported revenue growth of 7%.…

StoneMor receives financing, completes asset review

By Funeral Director Daily / February 5, 2019 /

Yesterday StoneMor Partners issued a press release which you can read here.  In it they “announced a number of key financial and operational updates representing further steps forward in its ongoing turnaround effort.  These steps include a waiver and amedment of certain loan covenants, growth financing from its largest investor and the completion of an…

Carriage Services Profit drops. . . management to fight back

By Funeral Director Daily / January 18, 2019 /

Death care consolidator Carriage Services issued preliminary 2018 results on Wednesday.  You can read a press release from the company here. In those results the company announced that they had grown revenue year over year from $258.1 million in 2017 to an an unaudited estimate of $268.0 million in 2018.  That would be an increase…

Dignity PLC upgrades forecast on “Stronger than Expected” 4th Qtr

By Funeral Director Daily / January 16, 2019 /

In a brief update that you can read here, the United Kingdom’s largest funeral services provider issued a statement that says they expect profits to be higher than expected for 2018 due to higher than expected revenue while overhead has been kept lower than expected. Dignity plc also stated that their market share had remained…

An opinion on Service Corporation International

By Funeral Director Daily / January 15, 2019 /

Just this morning I noticed an information piece on Service Corporation International from Zack’s Research.  It’s a short, but interesting look at how at least some people look at the death care industry as compared to the overall market and what they think about SCI. Interesting to note, is that according to the article, Service…

Who Might the Buyers Be

By Funeral Director Daily / January 2, 2019 /

So, as Monday afternoon churned into our New Year’s Eve revelry we did get to see the equity markets take a final upturn, but for the year we saw the Dow Jones average lose 5.6%, the Nasdaq lose 3.9%, and the S & P 500 lose 6.2% of its value.  All in all, the major…

Strategic Acquisitions Continue

By Funeral Director Daily / December 13, 2018 /

Mergers and acquisitions in the death care space are nothing new and actually seem to be accelerating in not only the retail funeral home and cremation space but among suppliers as well.  Earlier this week we learned of Foundation Partners Group acquiring the Loyless Funeral Homes of Florida and we learned of Wilbert Funeral Services,…

Markets flat for ’18, DCI drops

By Funeral Director Daily / December 10, 2018 /

  After Friday’s market close I thought it might be a good time to check up with what has happened in the Death Care industry since the beginning of the year.  As you know the Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI) is made up of the value of one share of stock for eight…

InvoCare stock being shorted

By Funeral Director Daily / December 3, 2018 /

I just saw this article over the weekend and thought I would send it out.  It pertains to the stock of Australian death care leader InvoCare being shorted by many investors.  Being “shorted” means, in basic terms, that many investors believe that the share price will go lower. I thought it interesting in light of…