From the business world. . . . .

As we continue to move into the reports from Wall Street on how public companies have been doing for the first six months of 2019 we have a couple of items that we noticed in today’s news that we will present to you:

Dignity PLC halts dividend:  The British funeral home conglomerate announced on Wednesday that they will be suspending payment of their dividend to stockholders.  You can read a story about it here.  As you know, about a year ago, Dignity PLC announced that it would drastically cut their retail price to the public to meet competition in the ever competitive market of British funerals.

According to the article, Dignity reported profit for the six months ending June 28 of US$ 29.0 million as compared to a year ago profit of about US $52.8 million. . . .that is a decrease of over 40%.  The company also reported in the article that they conducted 9% less services than in the same period of a year ago and the average revenue per funeral also dropped.

Dignity PLC operates approximately 800 funeral establishments across Great Britain.

Yahoo Finance says take a look at Matthews International:  Yahoo Finance posted this article from Simply Wall Street  that we noticed today that death care industry public company Matthews International may be worth taking a look at because of the possibility of a growing dividend.  According to the article Matthews has announced a dividend that equates to $0.80 per share per year which is a 2.3% yield on the stock price and that they foresee room for the dividend to grow.

One of three Matthews business segments deals with what they call the “memorialization” industry.  They are the parent company of a memorial company, Aurora Casket, and Matthews Cremation.

Other companies in the news:  As you know, Service Corporation International reported earnings earlier this week and we will provide more commentary on their results.  Today, after the markets close, we will get news on the financial quarter for both Carriage Services and Hillenbrand Industries.  Park Lawn Corporation will report their results on August 12.

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