Seeking Alpha author Daniel Jones made the following comment in this opinion article titled “Carriage Services is coming back to life” published last week about the company:

“. . . I believe that the market is currently underestimating Carriage Services. The business has done a fine job of reorienting itself over the last couple of years, and it clearly is back in growth mode. . “

As is Funeral Director Daily’s policy for financial opinion articles, we will link the article and show some quotes on the article but let the reader make their own decisions as to the opinions given.

Jones makes the following claims at the beginning of the article about Carriage Services:

• “Carriage Services remains deeply undervalued, with strong top-line growth and demographic tailwinds positioning it for long-term success.”
• “CSV’s recent acquisitions and expansion into new markets signal a return to ‘growth mode’ after significant debt reduction and strategic review.”
• “Despite mixed profitability in recent years, 2025 guidance points to higher revenue, improved adjusted earnings, and attractive valuation versus peers.”

Funeral Director Daily will also provide these interesting graphics that accompanied the article for your knowledge:

The continued high fragmentation of the industry allows for more consolidation

America’s aging population creates tailwinds for Death Care providers

Carriage Services location map (As of December 31, 2024)

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Carriage Services.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Seeking Alpha contributiing author Daniel Jones published an article this week titled, “Service Corporation International:  You might want to hold this one until your last breath”.

It is a very interesting article that uses both SCI financial data and United States birth and death data to make a case that SCI, as a company is probably a good investment for the long haul.  The article also makes good use of graphs to tell its story.  You can access the article here.

As always, Funeral Director Daily does not take a particular side of the issues presented other than to present them to you for your own opinions.  Here are some quotes from the article:

• “Service Corporation International remains a dominant player in the US and Canadian funeral and cemetery industry, with strong growth prospects.”

• “SCI’s revenue, profits, and cash flows continue to rise, driven by population growth and increasing demand for death care services.”

• “Unless you expect a world-ending catastrophe, you can expect revenue growth achieved by Service Corporation International to continue for the long haul.”

• “While many countries, like Japan, South Korea, and China, are seeing populations decline, the US continues to see population growth, largely because of immigration.”

Steady Growth of U.S. Population from 1950 to 2024 as shown in the article

The above chart shows the steady population growth in the United States from 1950 to the present.  The article states, “In 2024, it (the U.S. population) hit an all-time high of 345.4 million. That’s up an astounding 22.7%, or 64.9 million, since the year 2000.”

And, here is another chart from the article which shows a continuing growth of population up to 2050 where the hypothesis is that the  United States population will reach 380.8 million —  that’s another 10% increase from 2024.

U.S. population projected growth to 2050 with a projected rise in Median Age. (Image from Seeking Alpha article)

Here is a quote from the article that pertains to the above chart and the idea of the country’s Median Age rising, “It’s unclear what the future holds. We do know that, by 2050, the US population is expected to grow to 380.8 million. The median age is forecasted to grow to about 41.9 years. Currently, the Congressional Budget Office expects an overall decline in the mortality rate. But not everybody agrees with that. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, for instance, expects issues like drug use to challenge the common narrative that mortality rates will actually decline even as the population of the US continues aging.”

Author Daniel Jones somewhat combines the idea of more deaths with the idea of SCI as North America’s largest Death Care provider to make this statement, “But what is undeniable is that a growth in the overall size of the population is guaranteed to cause the number of deaths to grow. This certainly bodes well for a company such as Service Corporation International.”

Related Article — Here’s a recent article from CBS New’s 60 Minutes Overtime that questions what might happen if the United States continues to see a decline in natural born birth rates.  It is titled “The Trends behind the historically low U.S. Birth Rate” and can be accessed here.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I think Seeking Alpha author Daniel Jones has a good handle on Service Corporation International as a company and on his insights into the United States population dynamics.  Putting those two things together easily leads one to believe that if you are the biggest in a growing industry, as that industry grows with opportunity, your company should enjoy the most growth.

That makes a lot of sense. . . .But I’ve also learned over my life that things don’t always happen in a vacuum.  In this case there are a host of other issues surrounding Death Care choice that it is not as easy as saying 1 + 1 = 2.

While Service Corporation International seems to be making all the right moves in moving in line with society’s Death Care choices — such as making arrangements with at least one of the professions natural organic reduction providers —  there is no guarantee that Death Care clientele will continue to use traditional funeral homes in the same numbers as they do today.  And, if over the next couple of decades SCI cannot move in sync with what consumers want. . . . a larger population (and more deaths) may be no help at all to them.

In my opinion, Death Care is now all about staying relevant with the consumers you are going to serve.  Yes, with the caveat that it is also somewhat geographic location related, the more deaths in your area the more business you should have.  However, I also think Death Care is in a unique position among consumers where habits and methods of use are changing and growth, even with more deaths, will take the right “moves” by existing Death Care businesses to continue to grow.

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Service Corporation International.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Americans Embrace Digital Funeral Planning While Still Seeking Professional Guidance, New NFDA Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study Reveals 

Brookfield, Wis. – The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, has released its 2025 Consumer Awareness & Preferences Study, revealing significant shifts in how Americans approach death and funeral planning. The comprehensive research shows consumers are increasingly embracing digital solutions while simultaneously demonstrating growing reliance on funeral directors’ expertise. 

The research continues NFDA’s ongoing effort since 2012 to track evolving consumer attitudes and help funeral service professionals better serve families. 

Key findings include: 

● Digital adoption surges: Nearly 30% of families now complete all funeral arrangements online, while 40% of consumers have used the services of a funeral home they found on Facebook—nearly doubling from 21% in 2023. 

● Professional expertise increasingly valued: 44.4% would feel not very confident or not at all confident planning a funeral without a funeral director’s help—up 7.1% since 2024, despite growing digital adoption. Additionally, of those consumers who planned a funeral online, nearly 48% still needed the assistance of a funeral director and more than 15% felt the online planning process was either impersonal and lacked the level of compassionate service they would have received had they planned with a funeral director. 

● Religion remains central: 75.7% consider religious components very important or somewhat important in funeral services, while nearly 64% would arrange livestreaming for distant relatives. 

● Green options gain appeal: More than 61.4% of consumers are interested in exploring “green” funeral and natural burial options. 

● Economic pressures shape choices: 55.4% of respondents earned less than $50,000 annually, compared to 38.5% in 2024, influencing demand for value.

● Pre-planning preferences evolve: While 19.4% have pre-planned and prepaid for arrangements, primarily to guarantee prices and relieve survivors of financial burden, 31.8% prefer a hybrid approach combining online planning with direct funeral director consultation. 

“This research demonstrates that while technology is transforming how families access funeral services, the fundamental value of professional guidance remains irreplaceable,” said Dutch Nie, NFDA Immediate Past-President and Nie Family Funeral Home & Cremation Services owner, CEO/President and funeral director . “Funeral directors are successfully adapting to digital expectations while maintaining their essential role as trusted advisors during families’ most difficult times.” 

The study also reveals that consumers increasingly view funeral directors as valuable experts, with growing recognition of their professional expertise in navigating complex arrangements and providing essential support during grief. 

About the Study 

The 2025 NFDA Consumer Awareness & Preferences Study continues NFDA’s ongoing research tracking consumer attitudes since 2012. The study is designed to help funeral service professionals better understand and serve evolving family needs while maintaining the highest standards of care and professionalism. Conducted in the spring of 2025, 1,126 Americans age 40 and older were surveyed. 

About NFDA 

NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit NFDA.org. 

A recent opinion article from Seeking Alpha author Lighting Rock Research concludes that “After two years of deleveraging and portfolio optimization, I think this is a turning point for Carriage Services to pursue acquisitions and grow its core funeral and cemetery businesses.”

Here are a couple of bullet points from the article whereby the author thinks Carriage Services is on an upswing.

• “(Carriage Services is) reflecting stable growth and a turning point after two years of deleveraging.”
• “Carriage’s preneed cemetery strategy and normalized growth post-pandemic support steady cash flow and future profitability.”
• “Balance sheet improvements position the company for strategic M&A, with forecasts of 4% organic revenue growth and incremental margin expansion.”

One dissenting bullet point by the author is such:

• “Key Carriage Services risks include leadership transition, competition from low-cost providers, and the need to further reduce high-cost debt.”

Here are some more bullet points from the article, which you can access here:

• “Carriage Services operates 159 funeral homes and 28 cemeteries in the U.S. market, making it a small competitor to Service Corporation International (SCI). The company has recently focused on debt repayment and optimizing its overall portfolios.”.
• “Carriage Services has generated stable growth over the past years, with a 6% revenue growth and 7.1% adjusted EPS growth.”
• “The key message for the quarter was that the company’s business is back on track after two years of debt repayment and divesting non-core business units.”

Comparisons with SCI —-

The article by Lighting Rock Research was published shortly after Carriage Services 2nd Quarter financial reports.  Lightning Rock Research also published an article shortly after the 2nd Quarter financial report of Service Corporation International.  You can access Funeral Director Daily’s coverage of that article here.

What is interesting about those two articles by the same author is that you can make comparisons on two companies in the Death Care retail business and look for similarities and differences.  For whatever reason, Lightning Rock Research sees, as a percentage, future revenue growth higher with SCI than Carriage.  The Revenue Growth Rate projections as shown on the charts below indicate a slightly over 6% annual rate for SCI and a slightly under 6% annual rate for Carriage Services.

When it comes to Earnings Per Share, the researcher postulates in his projections that SCI will almost triple its profits in the next decade while maintaining that Carriage Services will slightly more than double their Earnings Per Share over the same time period.  At first thought that difference could be seen as SCI using their economies of scale to increase profits. . . . Or, it could be that the author believes that cemeteries will be more profitable than funeral homes over that time period as SCI operates the higher percentage of cemeteries of the two entities.

Here are some charts where you can find some comparative numbers between SCI and Carriage Services that were provided in the articles by Lighting Rock Research:

Current Numbers taken from 10-k report as reported by LIghting Rock Research.  (FCF=Free Cash Flow)

Carriage Services 10-Year Projections from Lighting Rock Research:

Carriage Services Ten-Year Forecast by Lighting Rock Research

Service Corporation International 10-Year Projections from Lighting Rock Research:

Projections of SCI’s Revenue, Operating Profits, Net Profits, and more through 2034 by Lighting Rock Research

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  I always caution myself that when I look at financial reports that the numbers are “one-point, stationary-in-time” numbers.  It is my opinion that to get a good feel on the direction of a company you need to look at “trends over time”.

However, these two fairly current articles by the same researcher give us some type of feel as to how that researcher sees the companies from his point of view.

One difference I have with the research is his opinion that his viewpoint that one risk with Carriage Services is “leadership transition”.  The  founding of the company and the 30-year leadership of Melvin Payne can not be diminished, however, I think that leadership team of the past two years is now in place and will be a strength of Carriage Services moving forward rather than a potential weakness.

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of both Carriage Services and Service Corporation International.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Last week was Earnings Release week for Service Corporation International (SCI) and readers of Funeral Director Daily are getting their second consecutive article on the company’s performance in this update.  This morning’s article was headlined, “Firing on all cylinders”.

Investor information network Seeking Alpha published an article last week from Lighting Rock Research that you can access here, about SCI and it’s 2nd Quarter 2025 report titled “As steady as she goes”.  It in many ways reaffirms what Funeral Director Daily said about the 2nd Quarter and Half-Year performance of the company so far in 2025 but goes a little bit further making some projections for the future.

In a short sentence Lighting Rock Research makes this comment about the future of SCI, “The company’s stable business model, direct sales transition, and acquisition strategy position it for 5% organic revenue growth from FY26 onward.”

Included in the article is the following chart which the authors use to feature what they believe will be the financial performance of Service Corporation moving forward.  As you can see it projects Revenue, Operating Profits, Net Profits and more through the year 2034.

Projections of SCI’s Revenue, Operating Profits, Net Profits, Free Cash-Flow and more through 2034

Lighting Rock Research mentions two risk factors for SCI going forward.  Here is what they think those may be:

1. In the U.S. market, many Hispanic and Asian customers prefer cemetery services. Due to the Trump administration’s immigration policy, I think some Hispanic and Asian populations might leave the U.S.  If that occurs, the population mix change could pose some growth challenges to Service Corporation..
2. In addition, the gross margin of its cemetery business declined by 110basis points during the quarter, caused by higher sales compensations. Investors need to closely monitor the company’s gross margin in the upcoming quarters to ensure these elevated sales compensation payments do not become a persistent issue.

Funeral Director Daily take:  There has been a lot of anxiety about Death Care moving forward.  The positivity of this article was a refreshing change from some of the bleak predictions of Death Care moving into the future.  I think it shows that the glass is either half-full or half-empty in someone’s opinion.

Lighting Rock Research predicts a “5% organic revenue growth” for SCI annually for the next decade.  In a Death Care world where we see some providers dealing with a Direct Cremation induced revenue decrease that is, in my estimation, a bold prediction that if it rings true indicates a very positive future for SCI.

The projections show an even stronger company going into the future that uses the cash it generates to no only continue growing with acquisitions, but also rewards existing shareholders by reducing the number of shares outstanding through internal stock buy-backs.

As you look at the projection chart, the projections show Revenue going from $4.3 billion to 7.4 billion — a compounded 72% increase in the next ten years.  The projections also show Net Profits more than doubling from $548 million to $1.24 billion in that same time period.

If SCI truly hits those numbers it should mean business is good for Death Care in North America.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

About ten days ago this article appeared on investor site Seeking Alpha authored by Caffital Research.  The article was about funeral home/crematory/cemetery operator Carriage Services.  The title of the article was “Carriage Services:  Further upside requires further M&A.”

In that article the author(s) stated “Carriage Services, Inc. has still been quiet on the M&A front. The funeral home and cemetery operator has moderated its debt through non-core asset divestments and by using internal cash flow on debt payments, creating a better financial position for further acquisitions. Yet, such transactions haven’t been announced so far. Carriage Services’ own operations remain stable.”

The writer(s) did make this statement about Carriage Services operation without comment to the M&A levels, “As can be expected, Carriage Services’ own performance has stayed quite stable. The first quarter showed total revenues of $107.1 million, up by 3.5% year-on-year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA came in at $32.9 million, showing strong leverage from $27.0 million a year ago. Both revenues and the adjusted EPS beat Wall Street’s consensus.”

Finally, the article made this comment, “The Q1 earnings call still reiterated the point that Carriage Services is looking at acquisition candidates, and noted that the company is already in discussions with a number of owners. The notations suggest that Carriage Services may finally return to acquisitions in the latter parts of 2025. The lack of transactions in 2025 so far has still been disappointing and somewhat lowers my expectations of Carriage Services’ future M&A pace, though.”

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily:  As is my general position, I’m not going to comment on the researcher’s opinions.  I’ll leave that up to each of you.  However, I did want to look back on the company’s 1st Quarter Earnings Call, which you can access here, to see what exactly was said about acquisitions.

Here’s the comment I believe Caffital Research is alluding to about “looking at acquisitions”.  It comes from Carriage Services’ Chief Financial Officer John Enwright in an answer to an analyst’s question:

“Yes. So we are talking to a number of owners right now. And again, just kind of going back, when you think about those 16 months and $38 million of proceeds, we do intend to reinvest some of those in higher-quality EBITDA producing businesses and expect to be able to share more about that in Q3 and then again in Q4 as well. So back half of this year, there will be more to report there, but excited to be able to add acquisitions back to the value creation story for Carriage.” 

Disclosure — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Carriage Services.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

An article was authored by Seeking Alpha contributor Daniel Jones last week about the largest funeral home and cemetery operator in North America — Service Corporation International (SCI).  As our headline mentions, the title of the article, that you can access here, is “SCI:  A stock to take to the grave”.

Jones uses some information and images from SCI’s 1st Quarter presentation, which you can see here, in giving his analysis and opinion.

As with almost all of the articles from another source that give stock information and suggestions, we will quote some of the thoughts from the article but leave the personal opinions of Funeral Director Daily out of the equation.

Here are some of the quotes Jones uses in making his decisions on SCI:

• “Service Corporation International remains a ‘buy’ due to its industry leadership, stable growth, and strong long-term demographic tailwinds.”
• “The company’s asset clustering strategy and fragmented market offer significant acquisition and cost-saving opportunities for continued expansion.”
• Transition to insurance-funded pre-need contracts should improve margins and sales growth, with management guiding for stronger performance in 2026.”
• Since I (Seeking Alpha author Jones) last wrote about the company in January of this year, in an article in which I reaffirmed the business as a ‘buy’ candidate, the stock is up only 3.8% compared to the 4.3% rise that the S&P 500 has enjoyed. But since I originally rated it a ‘buy’ over nine years ago in April 2016, the stock is up an astounding 248.4%. That comfortably outpaces the 188% rise enjoyed by the S&P 500 over the same window of time. 

A couple of different graphics are shared in the report from the SCI 1st Quarter presentation.  Those graphics make these statements:

• “SCI has 1,985 total locations in North America as of March 31, 2025

• “SCI has a 17% market share in North America with other consolidators listed as 9% in total, and independents have a 74% market share.”

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a stockholder of Service Corporation International

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Investor network Seeking Alpha published an article last week in regards to investment opportunities in the largest publicly-held Death Care operator Service Corporation International (SCI).  The article was titled, “Service Corporation:  Benifiting from Aging Population, Strong Buy”.

From my point of view I will not go into the article but tell you that there were some very good graphics, including one that I have inserted here.  This is the first that I can remember seeing SCI locations on a map.  It apparently comes from SCI’s Form 10-K federal report.

The article also makes an estimate that approximately 110,000 deaths were “pulled forward” into 2020 from later years.  That is the first estimate that I have ever heard on that always subjective number.

With no further introduction or opinion on my part you can access the article here.

Disclaimer — The author of this article for Funeral Director Daily is a shareholder of Service Corporation International.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

As has become our custom when an article about one of the Death Care Index (DCI) companies is published in Seeking Alpha we bring that article to you.  Last week an article about Carriage Services was published titled “Carriage Services:  Strong gains look beckoning in 2025″.

You can access that article here.

As is also our custom with these types of articles, we present them to our readers with no opinion on our part.  Here are a couple of exerpts, however, from the article:

• “Carriage Services shows strong growth in Preneed cemetery sales, and free cash flow gains, and has revised guidance upward due to robust quarterly earnings beats.”

• “. . . . it wasn’t surprising to see the company report a strong earnings beat due to an 11% top-line gain over the same period of 12 months prior. Strong gains in both the top & bottom lines resulted in management bumping up full-year top-line guidance to approximately $400 million and adjusted free cash flow to approximately $60 million.”

• “Carriage’s fiscal 2024 trends demonstrate that momentum may be ramping up even further in the funeral & cemetery provider. Why do we state this? Considering that earnings growth is the prime driver of stocks on Wall Street, Carriage is projected to deliver over 21% growth in fiscal 2025.”

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

We found a recent investment article by Seeking Alpha author Daniel Jones that was published on Sunday, January 12.  When you are in this business as I have been for over 40 years, it is always interesting to see what others have to say about the investment opportunities available in the business’ public markets.

Without an opinion by me, I present this article from Seeking Alpha titled “Service Corporation International remains attractive, in spite of recent underperformance” for your enjoyment and knowledge.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”