Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV)

HOUSTON, May 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE: CSV) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved the repurchase of up to an aggregate of $25 million of its common stock.  The repurchase plan calls for the repurchases to be made in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions from time-to-time in compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, including Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.

Commenting on the announcement, Melvin C. Payne, Chief Executive Officer, stated "I am pleased to announce that our Board has approved a $25 million common share repurchase program, effective immediately.  As I discussed in our recent first quarter press release, our goal for Capital Allocation is to invest our recurring Adjusted Free Cash Flow among various options to achieve returns in excess of our cost of capital in order to create maximum shareholder value "per share" over long periods of time while judiciously managing our diluted share count...

...We are currently trading at a significant performance valuation discount to our sector peer group as to Adjusted EPS and normalized recurring Free Cash Flow.  Carriage's Rolling Four Quarter Outlook reflects a "roughly right" range of $1.55 to $1.59 Adjusted EPS and $42 to $44 million Adjusted Free Cash Flow whose midpoints reflect an earnings per share multiple of about 16 and a recurring equity Free Cash Flow yield of approximately 9%, valuation performance metrics which we believe do not fully reflect the intrinsic value of Carriage.

We will repurchase shares under our $25 million approved plan from time to time as long as we can buy our shares at prices under what we consider "fair value". We will continue to prioritize the allocation of our internally generated capital on acquiring the best remaining independent funeral and cemetery businesses in the country and on internal growth projects that generate rates of return well in excess of our cost of capital.

Three Months Ending September 30, 2012

• Total Revenue up 14% to $49.5 million;
• Adjusted Earnings Per Share up 60% to $0.16 from $0.10 in 2011; and
• Reported GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share declined to $0.03 in 2012 from $0.04 in 2011

Mel Payne, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Our third quarter performance was outstanding, as we achieved revenue growth of 14% to a record $49.5 million, and Adjusted Earnings Per Share growth of 60% to a record 16� per share. This record performance during what has traditionally been our weakest seasonal quarter was driven by substantially higher year over year revenue growth and margin expansion in each of our four major profit segments, the consolidated impact of which is reflected in the 2012 quarterly and nine month comparative highlights shown below:"

ROLLING FOUR QUARTER OUTLOOK RAISED

The Rolling Four Quarter Outlook "(Outlook)" reflects management's current opinion on the performance of the portfolio of businesses for the rolling four quarter period ending September 30, 2013, and the performance of the trusts as well as our view of the financial markets.  Factors affecting our analysis include, among others, acquisitions, funeral contract volumes, average revenue per funeral service, cemetery interment volumes, preneed cemetery sales, capital expenditures, execution of our funeral and cemetery Standards Operating Model, Strategic Acquisition Model, and Withdrawable Trust Income. 

• Revenues to be in the range of $218 - $220 million
• NON GAAP EPS to be in the range of $1.03 - $1.05
  

Removing CSV from the GeoSpeicial List @ $6.01

Added to the GeoSpecial list @ $5.90 on 9/30/2011

Catalyst: recession resistant, company comments indicated that it was on the cusp of a new growth phase

Peak performance: Reached a high of  $6.30 on 10/27/2011; + 7%
Current road block: After reading the filings we noticed that the company does offer ancillary services.  We would like to see how this business is holding up in the current economic environment. We will place on GeoSpecial on the radar list

Current Price: $6.01
Additional Comments: We will wait for the release of the third quarter press release to see if company is indeed weathering the storm.  Until then we will place on GeoSpecial on the radar list.

HOUSTON, Aug. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE: CSV) today announced results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011, compared to the second quarter of 2010, as follows:

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

• Total Revenue of $47.9 million, an increase of 7.6% compared to $44.5 million;
• Adjusted Consolidated EBITDA of $12.2 million, an increase of 9.4% compared to $11.2 million;
• Net Income of $2.6 million, an increase of 13.1% compared to $2.3 million;
• Diluted EPS of $0.14 per share, and after adjusting for special charges, Adjusted Diluted EPS of $0.16, an increase of 23.1% compared to $0.13 per diluted share;
• Free Cash Flow of $10.1 million, an increase of 4.6% compared to Free Cash Flow of $9.7 million;
• Initiated first ever quarterly cash dividend payment of 2.5 cents per share on June 1, 2011.

Mel Payne, Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are halfway through what we believe will be a breakout year for our Company, with our operating performance trends having good momentum for a strong finish to 2011. I am especially pleased to see the commitment and dedication of our operating leaders throughout our Company toward making 2011 a year to remember in celebration of Carriage's 20^th year anniversary from its founding on June 1, 1991. Because of our expectation that the strong growth in our field operating and financial results during the first half of 2011 will continue into 2012, we are raising our Four Quarter EPS outlook by 4 cents per share to 56 cents-60 cents and the Free Cash Flow outlook by $10 million to $30 million."

"Our operating performance in all areas improved sequentially in each month of the second quarter. Each of our reporting groups had excellent gains in Field EBITDA in the quarter, as our Total Funeral Field EBITDA increased $1.3 million or 12.6%, Total Cemetery Field EBITDA increased $0.5 million or 18.2%, and Total Financial Field EBITDA increased $0.2 million or 6.2%, combining to produce an increase of 12.2% in our Total Field EBITDA and an increase of 160 basis points in our Total Field EBITDA Margin to 37.3%."

"The only challenge for the quarter was growth in Total Overhead of $0.9 million or 18.7%, as we increased staffing levels and upgraded talent in our regional operations organization and home office support departments for higher anticipated growth. Notwithstanding the growth in overhead, our Adjusted Consolidated EBITDA Margin increased 40 basis points to 25.5% in the second quarter, our second straight quarter above 25% which has put us on a trend line to achieve our highest full year Adjusted Consolidated EBITDA Margin since 2007."

"But the best news of all is the growth in our Consolidated Free Cash Flow, which is rapidly improving the credit profile and financial flexibility of our Company. Year to date through June 30, our Consolidated Free Cash Flow increased $1.3 million to $12.4 million, an increase of 11.9% over last year. These increases are being generated from higher trending year over year funeral and cemetery operating performance and from higher recognized financial gains and income from our trust funds. Our growing Consolidated Free Cash Flow and earnings are the primary reasons we instituted our first quarterly dividend policy of 2.5 cents per share on June 1, 2011."

"Moreover, as covered in our press release of July 20, 2011, we withdrew $8.1 million in July from our California cemetery merchandise and service trusts and have a similar $0.4 million withdrawal currently pending a Nevada state regulatory review of the calculation of excess cemetery merchandise and services income. On a going forward basis, we will withdraw about $100,000 of recurring income monthly from cemetery merchandise and services trusts in these two states, which will increase our annual Consolidated Free Cash Flow by $1.2 million. While the $8.5 million withdrawal will be reported as Free Cash Flow in our third quarter results, our proforma cash position as of June 30, 2011, including the $8.5 million withdrawal, surged to $13.7 million."

"Our accelerating Free Cash Flow means that we are able to self fund a higher amount of new acquisitions which will be accretive sooner because of a substantially improved integration process. Our acquisition pipeline is very active and we still believe we will acquire $10 million of annualized revenue by year end 2011," concluded Mr. Payne.

ACQUISITIONS

We acquired two funeral home businesses during the second quarter of 2011 for approximately $5.1 million: Schooler Funeral Home, Angel Funeral Home and Schooler-Armstrong Chapel in Amarillo, Texas on April 5, 2011, and Stanfill Funeral Homes in Miami, Florida on April 12, 2011.

Schooler Funeral Home, Angel Funeral Home and Schooler-Armstrong Chapel perform approximately 400 funeral services annually and are forecast to generate annual revenue in the range of $1.6 to $1.9 million and Funeral Field EBITDA in the range of $0.4 to $0.5 million. This acquisition expands our presence in the Amarillo market and complements our existing LaGronne-Blackburn Shaw operations.

Stanfill Funeral Homes currently perform approximately 350 funeral services annually and are forecast to generate annual revenue in the range of $1.4 to $1.5 million and Funeral Field EBITDA of approximately $0.4 million upon integration completion.

These acquisitions are expected to add materially to our new acquisition portfolio performance (those businesses acquired since the beginning of 2007) and the company's diluted EPS in 2011 and thereafter. We have established a policy of announcing acquisitions when we have closed the transaction and integrating expected proforma results of newly announced acquisitions into our Rolling Four Quarter Outlook in conjunction with the subsequent quarterly earnings release.