Earlier this week I read this article from Yahoo Finance authored by Brian Sozzi. The article is entitled “Consumers have to face that nasty inflation is here to stay for awhile”. The article goes on to mention that, at least in Mr. Sozzi’s opinion, skilled workers are too few in number to meet the needs of post-pandemic businesses and that is leading to wage inflation. He doesn’t see a stop to that phenomena in the short term and for that […]
Carriage Services reported their 1st Quarter of 2022 last week and in doing so highlighted the strength of their funeral home operations. “Same Store” service contracts increased about 3.3% and average revenue on those services increased 1.2% over the same period of last year which led to a Funeral Home Operating Revenue increase of $3.3 million and Total System Revenue of $98.2 million (a 1.6% increase) even as the Cemetery Division revenue decreased almost 5% for the quarter. For 1Q […]
When you read this it will already be May 2022 and we will be two-thirds of the way into the 2nd Quarter of most company’s 2022 business year. As a matter of fact, the reports of January thru March have already started to roll out as Matthews International provided us information on the January thru March period just last week. We will be reporting on that later this week. However, I was asked by some in the death care business […]
I’ve written before about Peter Lynch’s 1989 best-seller “One up on Wall Street”. It was a learning book for me and one where I had a coming of age introduction to different types of investing. One of Lynch’s topics in the book was the death care company Service Corporation International (SCI). He likened the company to a company that could produce plastic knives and forks. . . . slow, but steady growth with increasing profits each year. It was about […]
Since the first of the year there has been a lot in the news. . . . and news that is probably more consequential than other 75-day time periods over the last couple of years. Let’s see. . . there’s been the Omicron variant, supply shortages, inflation, and the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. On top of all of that in the United States, much of our financial picture depends on what the Federal Reserve Board will do with interest […]
I think it is fair to say that Melvin Payne, CEO and founder of Carriage Services is an unusual leader — but, it is also probably fair to say that Payne’s style of leadership has been effective since the inception of Carriage Services in 1991. In last week’s published 2021 4th Quarter and Year End report to Shareholders Payne makes this comment, “After co-founding Carriage at 48 years young on June 1, 1991, the company has finally evolved after more than […]
We’ve now entered the season where public companies will give their reports on their 4th Quarter and Year End results from 2021. As the death care companies report their results we will bring them to you. It’s also a season where financial and stock analysts like to give us their opinions on what has happened and what they think will happen in the next year or longer with these companies. Today we bring you two such reports on a couple […]
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 […]
Funeral home and cemetery consolidator Carriage Services reported on the financial results of their 3rd Quarter for 2021 and in doing so reported record 3rd Quarter revenue for a quarter of $95.0 million. That is 12.6% higher than the $84.3 million of revenue recorded in the 3rd Quarter of 2020. Here’s what is said in the press release from Carriage Services that you can read here, “All five of our field reporting segments executed at an extremely high level during […]
We found this report, dated October 21, interesting from Zacks Equity Research. Here’s an interesting couple of lines from the report. . .”SCI is likely to display year-over-year declines in the top and bottom lines, when it reports third-quarter 2021 numbers on Oct 27. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $800 million, suggesting a drop of 12.9% from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure.” Service Corporation International is expected to report 3rd Quarter earnings on October 27 (tomorrow). […]
