On November 1, 2018, StoneMor Partners issued a press release that you can read here which reported it’s financial results for the 1st Quarter of 2018.  That period covers the time period of January 1, 2018, until March 31, 2018.  As you may know, the company is moving from a Master Limited Partnership to a corporate structure and that, along with other issues, has caused financial information to be delayed.

The company believes that the preliminary data shows that StoneMor will show a loss about equal to the 1st  quarter of 2017 when results are finalized.  That loss is approximately $8.5 million for the quarter.  They also expect revenue to be about $5 million less for the quarter coming in at about $78 million as compared to last years 1st quarter revenue of about $83 million.

StoneMor’s press release states that it now owns and operates 322 cemeteries and 91 funeral homes.

Funeral Director Daily take:  Our take, and we’ve always said that when it comes to public companies operating in the death care businesses, StoneMor Partners trends and operates much more on the cemetery side of the industry as compared to the funeral service side of the industry more so than any of the other public death care companies.

As we say that it is apparent that the new management at StoneMor has found some bright spots and positive trends in the operation of their cemeteries.  We noticed the following:

• Cemetery Interment Revenue is up about 9% Year over year from last years 1st quarter
• Cemetery Services Revenue is up over 10% Year over Year from last years 1st quarter
• For the quarter almost 80% of the company’s revenue came from the cemetery side

On the funeral side we noticed the following:

• Total funeral revenue for services and merchandise is down about 10% year over year for the 1st quarter
• Total funeral revenue is only $15.7 million for their 91 funeral homes for the quarter.  That would equate to an average total revenue of about $693,000 per funeral home per year based on their number of 91 funeral homes.
• The $693,000 revenue per funeral home would indicate that their funeral operations are small operations
• Just over 20% of the company’s revenues for the quarter came from the funeral side.  That is about a 1% decrease from last year

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