How some in the secular financial world see Death Care. . . interesting articles

January 4, 2022/Afternoon Edition/

I like to stay abreast of what is happening in the world of finance. And, even though I like to stay in my lane about what I know, over the years I probably bought a stock or two in a company where I didn’t really know the inside out of how the company made its profits.

I also like to think that I know the business of Death Care somewhat and understand most of the roads to profitability. I ‘ve held investments in the category for years because I think certain companies have the ability to churn out profits year after year with good management.

It’s always interesting for me to see what others — those not in our profession — think about the individual companies that make up the world of publicly traded Death Care companies. Towards the end of 2021, I noticed a couple of articles on companies in our industry and found that the authors, from their secular perspective, maybe see things differently than I do.

I think you may enjoy reading these articles.

“The Death Rate Soared Last Year – But not why you think” from Nasdaq.com. —

The premise of this article is that the discussed companies are “relatively undervalued” and have traditionally had “above-average historical sales growth, dividend increases, and earnings growth.” The article touches on Carriage Services, Hillenbrand Industries, and Service Corporation International.

“StoneMor” Resurrection of Graveyard Stock, Worth 4-5x to Shareholders” from Seeking Alpha —

The premise of this article is that there may be more to StoneMor, Inc. than meets the eye. Here’s what the author says in an intro to the company, “. . .over the last several years (StoneMor) has gone through a transformation starting with installing CEO, Joe Redling. Redling eliminated unnecessary headcount, sold non-contiguous cemeteries, reduced corporate overhead by almost half, automated processes, and refinanced debt. Most importantly, a revamped sales team has ramped up pre-funded cemetery sales growth.”

Funeral Director Daily take: You may or may not agree with the takes of the authors about these companies. However, some of their thoughts may have never been in your head before. I present the articles with no opinions of my own.

Disclaimer: The author holds stock positions in some companies mentioned in today’s article.

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