Carriage Services reports Q1 EPS 75c, consensus 59c

Reports Q1 revenue $103.5M, consensus $98.79M. Carlos Quezada, 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. 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.”