Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) Short Interest Update

Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) saw a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 265,900 shares, a decline of 8.8% from the March 15th total of 291,700 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 93,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Carriage Services Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CSV traded down $0.42 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $23.32. The company had a trading volume of 65,290 shares, compared to its average volume of 91,127. Carriage Services has a twelve month low of $18.06 and a twelve month high of $35.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market cap of $353.06 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.36.

Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The company reported $0.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.28. Carriage Services had a return on equity of 21.39% and a net margin of 8.73%. The firm had revenue of $98.83 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.27 million. On average, research analysts predict that Carriage Services will post 2.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Carriage Services Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Monday, February 5th were issued a $0.1125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. This represents a $0.45 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Carriage Services’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Carriage Services

In other news, VP Paul Donald Elliott sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.87, for a total transaction of $168,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 38,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $987,664.86. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, VP Paul Donald Elliott sold 6,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.87, for a total transaction of $168,155.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 38,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $987,664.86. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Steven D. Metzger sold 1,388 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.58, for a total transaction of $35,505.04. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 42,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,099,300.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 14,372 shares of company stock valued at $369,521. Corporate insiders own 11.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Carriage Services

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in Carriage Services by 527.3% during the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 828 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Carriage Services by 98.5% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 585 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Carriage Services during the fourth quarter worth $38,000. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Carriage Services by 107.8% during the fourth quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 2,342 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,000 after acquiring an additional 1,215 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in Carriage Services by 35.3% during the second quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 1,655 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 432 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.46% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CSV has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $38.00 target price on shares of Carriage Services in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Carriage Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 15th.

About Carriage Services

Carriage Services, Inc provides funeral and cemetery services, and merchandise in the United States. It operates in two segments, Funeral Home Operations and Cemetery Operations. The Funeral Home Operations segment provides consultation services; funeral home facilities for visitation and memorial services; transportation services; removal and preparation of remains; sale of caskets and urns; cremation services; and related funeral merchandise.