Carriage Services Reports First-Quarter Results

On May 2, Carriage Services reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024.

Highlights included:

Total revenue of $103.5 million led to growth of 8.4% over the prior-year quarter, primarily driven by a 38.4% increase in cemetery preneed sales.
GAAP diluted earnings per share of 45 cents and adjusted diluted EPS of 75 cents compared to 57 cents and 56 cents in the prior-year quarter, respectively.
Completed the divestiture of previously announced non-core assets.
The company paid down $25 million of debt on its credit facility during the first quarter.
Reaffirmed full-year 2024 outlook.

Carlos Quezada, vice chairman and CEO, stated, “We are pleased to announce another solid performance in the first quarter of 2024, which reflects our consistent focus on executing our five-year strategic objectives. Our preneed cemetery sales team achieved a remarkable 38.4% year-over-year increase in preneed sales, highlighting the continued effectiveness of our cemetery sales growth plan. This solid cemetery performance contributed significantly to an increase in total revenue of 8.4% compared to the previous year.”

He continued, “Despite the anticipated operating volume decline of 1.9% in our Funeral segment due to the COVID-related “pull forward” effect, we continued to improve our top line through targeted enhancements to our pricing strategy, leading to total funeral operating revenue growth of 1.8% over the same quarter last year. Furthermore, we have made noticeable progress with our cost management initiatives, which led to an increase in adjusted consolidated EBITDA of 20.9% and an expansion of our adjusted consolidated EBITDA margin of 340 basis points to 32.5% when compared to the same quarter last year.

We remain excited about the future at Carriage. As we continue to focus on the implementation of our strategic objectives, as highlighted in our recent 2023 shareholder letter, we are encouraged by these positive results and remain fully committed to our new purpose statement: ‘Creating premier experiences through innovation, empowered partnership, and elevated service’”