DCI Value Slightly Down, Yield Up

We last visited the Death Care Index (DCI) following the March 3, 2017 market close.  At that time the value of one share of each of the six death care industry stocks that make up the index totaled together would have equaled $269.84 with an annual dividend of $5.66 for a 2.06% yield.  As of the close on Friday, May 19, the DCI was valued at $265.59 with an annual dividend of $5.74 for a 2.16% yield.

In the world of finance I would suggest that the DCI has been held pretty flat – actually – it is a 1.5% decline in price, but that is within the daily fluctuation range so it is pretty apparent no big moves either way have been made since we last checked in.  Service Corporation has announced a slight dividend raise – so coupled with a slight value decline – we have a yield increase.  Here is a highlight from each of the six DCI stocks along with the E-Trade Smart Consensus opinion on each as of May 19.

Matthews International – a quarterly earnings growth to $ 0.46 per share as compared to $0.43 per share for the same time period in 2016.  They report higher sales in all company segments.  They report that the Aurora integration is going smooth.  Smart Consensus = Hold.

Assurant – Assurant reports net operating income per share of $1.87 this quarter compared to $1.52 in the same quarter last year.  Smart Consensus = Sell.

StoneMor-– StoneMor, as reported last week in Funeral Director Daily, has replaced both their CEO and CFO in addition to some other leadership positions.  They report that they are currently trying to restructure their cemetery and pre-need salesforce.  Smart Consensus = Hold.

Hillenbrand Industries –  HI reports quarterly earnings of $0.53 per share compared to expectations of $0.48 per share.  They also report quarterly revenue of $395 million as compared to last year’s of $387 million.  I also noticed that their operating expenses are down slightly.  Smart Consensus = Buy.

Carriage Services – Their CEO, Mel Payne, reported that the glass is “Half-Full” at Carriage Services.  They had record quarterly revenues of $68.2 million compared to last year’s quarter of $67.4 million — but then acquisition companies are expected to have growing revenues – because they are growing locations at all times.  The company also recorded record earnings of $7.1 million for the quarter, but that amount was less than expected.  Smart Consensus = Hold.

Service Corporation International – SCI recently indicated that they will be increasing their payout to shareholders by increasing their dividend about 15% to $0.60 annually.  Anecdotally,  I’ve heard that SCI is “on the prowl” for large direct cremation operations for acquisition and addition to their Neptune Society brand.  It will be interesting to see if my source is correct. Smart Consensus = Hold.

So there you have it for a little check-up on the DCI.  Peter Lynch said in his book “One up on Wall Street” that the funeral industry is a little like the plastic knife and fork industry, “slow but solid growth”.  I think that is what we have seen in the past and we will continue to see in the future.[wpforms id=”436″ title=”true” description=”true”]

 

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