Finance

SCI 3rd Quarter 2024 – My opinion: Pretty much status quo

By Funeral Director Daily / November 1, 2024 /

    You can access the report on Service Corporation International’s (SCI) 3rd Quarter of 2024 here.  When you do, I’m of the opinion that you will see it looks pretty much like the 3rd Quarter of 2023.   Here’s a couple of Top-Line highlights as presented early in the report by SCI: Revenue grew $12.1…

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CEO Charlie Cole, two other executives leave Tribute Technologies

By Funeral Director Daily / October 29, 2024 /

  At Funeral Director Daily we don’t “break news” — we report on it and offer experienced analysis, ideas, and suggestions on the news that has happened.  That being said, the headline for this article on the resignations of three Tribute Technology employees does not come as a surprise to me.   This news was…

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Seeking Alpha author anticipating Carriage Services 3Q Report this week

By Funeral Director Daily / October 28, 2024 /

  It’s an interesting week in the Death Care profession.  Not only do we have Halloween coming up on Thursday, but the day before that, Wednesday, October 30, both of the two largest public funeral home and cemetery operating companies in America are expected to report their 3rd Quarter 2024 earnings.   Depending on how…

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Matthews International stock: Is the drop behind us?

By Funeral Director Daily / October 16, 2024 /

  In the last calendar year – dating back to October 16, 2023 – Matthews International stock, the parent company of Aurora Casket and Matthews Environmental Solutions (cremation), has dropped over 44% in a world, by contrast, where the Dow Jones Industrials have risen over 25% for the same dates.   A recent (October 6,…

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SCI shuffles the Corner Offices

By Funeral Director Daily / October 9, 2024 /

    Last week I read this press release from Service Corporation International (SCI) that was headlined “Service Corporation International announces Leadership Promotions”.  As I read through the announcement it reflected the fact that SCI was making some changes in its leadership structure.   While I don’t know the exact circumstances, in reading the press…

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Better Place Forests becomes both “High Touch” and “High Tech”

By Funeral Director Daily / October 8, 2024 /

    Better Place Forests (BPF) has been known for being a place where families can have meaningful “in-person” experiences with memorialization in the company forests.  Last week we learned of BPF’s acquisition of digital platform Butterfly which will now give the company the addition of “High Tech” digital memorials that can be accessed online…

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Illinois funeral home owner says selling to friends “. . makes it easier to walk away from this business I’ve known all my life”

By Funeral Director Daily / October 4, 2024 /

    We learned of an interesting sale/acquisition story that happened recently in Illinois.  This article from the Mendota Reporter will tell you of the sale of the Merritt Funeral Home to the Unger-Horner Funeral Home.   It’s interesting to note, according to the article, that the Merritt Funeral Home has been in the Merritt…

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SCI adds San Antonio funeral home locations

By Funeral Director Daily / September 30, 2024 /

    Last week we noticed in this short announcement from Market Screener that Houston-based Service Corporation International (SCI) had acquired the Porter Loring Mortuaries based in San Antonio, Texas.  It appears that the Porter Loring Companies operated three funeral homes in the San Antonio, Texas, market.   According to information gleaned from the San…

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Prelude receives an investment from Cortado Ventures

By Funeral Director Daily / September 27, 2024 /

  The last time we mentioned the upstart preneed company Prelude in Funeral Director Daily was this article back in March 2024 when we first heard of them.  We mentioned that we didn’t know much about them but from their LinkedIn references and website it appeared that they were in the business of helping individual…

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Matthews International is a “Dividend Aristocrat”

By Funeral Director Daily / September 23, 2024 /

  Just the other day as I was looking at public companies in the Death Care realm I noticed that Matthews International was paying a dividend to stockholders of just over 4% annually.  I look at those type of things because when I make an investment I not only like the stock price to eventually…

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