Carriage Services Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Results and Issues 2025 Guidance

Conference call on Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. Central Time

HOUSTON, Feb. 26, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE: CSV) today announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2024.

Company Highlights:

• Exceeded full year 2024 guidance for adjusted consolidated EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share, and achieved the high end of the range for total revenue, while divesting certain non-core assets;

• A 26.7% increase in consolidated cemetery preneed sales, and an increase of 3.1% in consolidated funeral average revenue per contract, drove total revenue of $404.2 million, representing growth of 5.7% over the prior year;

• GAAP net income decline of 1.4%, and adjusted consolidated EBITDA growth of 11.5%, over the prior year;

• GAAP diluted EPS of $2.10, a decline of 1.9% over the prior year and adjusted diluted EPS of $2.65, an increase of 21.0% over the prior year;

• Leverage ratio lowered to 4.3x from 5.1x at the same period last year, as the Company paid down $42.1 million of debt on its credit facility during the year; and

• The Company’s guidance for 2025 is $400-$410 million in total revenue, adjusted consolidated EBITDA of $128-$133 million, adjusted diluted EPS of $3.10-$3.30 and adjusted free cash flow of $40-$50 million, including expected divestitures of non-core assets.

Carlos Quezada, Vice Chairman and CEO, stated, “We are thrilled to announce that our strategic execution at every level has delivered outstanding financial results for the full year 2024. While the fourth quarter saw reduced funeral home revenue—primarily due to tough year-over-year comparisons and the lower volumes we began experiencing in October—our overall performance remained strong.

As we previously communicated in our third quarter earnings call, we anticipated these trends, yet we remained confident in our trajectory. This confidence led us to raise our full-year guidance, and we not only met the upper range for total revenue but exceeded expectations for adjusted EBITDA and EPS. The decline in volume appears to be linked to a delayed flu season, which impacted the number of at-need funeral services. However, based on current trends, we believe we are well-positioned for continued success in 2025.

These remarkable results are a testament to the dedication, hard work, and excellence of our team at Carriage. We deeply appreciate your continued support and look forward to building on this momentum, driving even greater success in 2025 and beyond,” concluded Mr. Quezada.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Total revenue for the three months ended December 31, 2024 decreased $1.1 million compared to the three months ended December 31, 2023. We experienced an anticipated decline in consolidated funeral contract volume against a challenging prior year comparable, resulting in a 7.3% decrease, which was partially offset by a 1.4% increase in the average revenue per funeral contract. Additionally, we experienced an 8.4% increase in preneed interment rights (property) sold and a 4.2% increase in the average price per preneed interment right sold.

• Net income for the three months ended December 31, 2024 decreased $1.8 million compared to the three months ended December 31, 2023 primarily driven by the decrease in funeral revenue. We experienced a $1.0 million decrease in gross profit contribution from our businesses, a $1.5 million increase in general, administrative and other expenses and a $0.2 million increase in income tax expense, which was partially offset by a $2.0 million decrease in interest expense.

• Total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2024 increased $21.7 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2023. We achieved continued growth in consolidated cemetery preneed sales as we experienced a 22.9% increase in preneed interment rights (property) sold and a 7.3% increase in the average price per preneed interment right sold. Additionally, we experienced a 3.1% increase in the average revenue per funeral contract, which was offset by a 4.9% decrease in funeral contract volume.

• Net income for the year ended December 31, 2024 decreased $0.5 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2023. We experienced a $19.1 million increase in gross profit contribution from our businesses and a $4.2 million decrease in interest expense, which was offset by a $16.9 million increase in general, administrative and other expenses, primarily comprised of one-time costs related to executive severance payments and the Company’s review of strategic alternatives, a $4.1 million increase in income tax expense and a $1.4 million increase in loss on divestitures, disposals and impairment charges.

OUTLOOK FOR 2025

The Company’s 2025 outlook incorporates previously stated organic growth initiatives around preneed sales, both in the cemetery and funeral businesses, and expected cost discipline while the Company continues to deleverage the balance sheet. Additionally, in the first half of 2025, the Company expects to divest certain non-core assets, reducing 2025 revenue and field EBITDA by ~$7.9 million and ~$2.3 million, respectively – the 2025 Outlook reflects the expected impact of these divestitures.

CALL AND INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACT

Carriage Services has scheduled a conference call for tomorrow, February 27, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. Central Time. To participate in the call, please dial 888-394-8218 (Conference ID - 3831963) or live over the Internet via webcast click link. An audio archive of the call will be available on demand via the Company's website at www.carriageservices.com. For any investor relations questions, please email InvestorRelations@carriageservices.com.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

This earnings release uses Non-GAAP financial measures to present the financial performance of the Company. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, the Company’s reported operating results or cash flow from operations or any other measure of performance as determined in accordance with GAAP. We believe the Non-GAAP results are useful to investors to compare our results to previous periods, to provide insight into the underlying long-term performance trends in our business and to provide the opportunity to differentiate ourselves as the best consolidation platform in the industry against the performance of other funeral and cemetery companies.

Reconciliations of the Non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures are also provided in this earnings release.

The Non-GAAP financial measures used in this earnings release and the definitions of them used by the Company for our internal management purposes in this earnings release are described below.

• Special items are defined as charges or credits included in our GAAP financial statements that can vary from period to period and are not reflective of costs incurred in the ordinary course of our operations. The change in uncertain tax reserves and the tax adjustment related to certain discrete items were not tax effected. Special items were taxed at the operating tax rate.

• Adjusted net income is defined as net income after adjustments for special items that we believe do not directly reflect our core operations and may not be indicative of our normal business operations. Adjusted net income margin is defined as adjusted net income as a percentage of total revenue.

• Consolidated EBITDA is defined as operating income, plus depreciation and amortization expense, non-cash stock compensation and net loss on divestitures, disposals and impairment charges. Consolidated EBITDA margin is defined as consolidated EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue.

• Adjusted consolidated EBITDA is defined as consolidated EBITDA after adjustments for acquisition expenses, severance and separation costs, litigation reserves, disaster recovery and pandemic costs and other special items. Adjusted consolidated EBITDA margin is defined as adjusted consolidated EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue.

• Adjusted free cash flow is defined as cash provided by operating activities, adjusted by special items as deemed necessary, less cash for maintenance capital expenditures, which include facility repairs and improvements, equipment, furniture and vehicle purchases and information technology infrastructure improvements. Adjusted free cash flow margin is defined as adjusted free cash flow as a percentage of total revenue.

• Funeral operating EBITDA is defined as funeral gross profit, plus depreciation and amortization and regional and unallocated costs, less financial EBITDA, ancillary EBITDA and divested EBITDA related to the Funeral Home segment. Funeral operating EBITDA margin is defined as funeral operating EBITDA as a percentage of funeral operating revenue.

• Cemetery operating EBITDA is defined as cemetery gross profit, plus depreciation and amortization and regional and unallocated costs, less financial EBITDA and divested EBITDA related to the Cemetery segment. Cemetery operating EBITDA margin is defined as cemetery operating EBITDA as a percentage of cemetery operating revenue.

• Preneed cemetery sales production is defined as cemetery property, merchandise and services sold prior to death.

• Financial EBITDA is defined as financial revenue, less the related expenses. Financial revenue and the related expenses are presented within Other revenue and Other expenses, respectively, on the Consolidated Statement of Operations. Financial EBITDA margin is defined as financial EBITDA as a percentage of financial revenue.

• Ancillary revenue is defined as revenues from our ancillary businesses, which include a flower shop, a monument company, a pet cremation business and our online cremation businesses. Ancillary revenue and the related expenses are presented within Other revenue and Other expenses, respectively, on the Consolidated Statement of Operations.

• Ancillary EBITDA is defined as ancillary revenue, less expenses related to our ancillary businesses noted above. Ancillary EBITDA margin is defined as ancillary EBITDA as a percentage of ancillary revenue.

• Divested revenue is defined as revenues from certain funeral home and cemetery businesses that we have divested.

• Divested EBITDA is defined as divested revenue, less field level and financial expenses related to the divested businesses noted above. Divested EBITDA margin is defined as divested EBITDA as a percentage of divested revenue.

• Overhead expenses are defined as regional and unallocated funeral and cemetery costs and general, administrative and other costs, excluding home office depreciation and non-cash stock compensation.

• Adjusted basic earnings per share (EPS) is defined as GAAP basic earnings per share, adjusted for special items.

• Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) is defined as GAAP diluted earnings per share, adjusted for special items.

Funeral Operating EBITDA and Cemetery Operating EBITDA

Our operations are reported in two business segments: Funeral Home operations and Cemetery operations. Our operating level results highlight trends in volumes, revenue, operating EBITDA (the individual business’ cash earning power/locally controllable business profit) and operating EBITDA margin (the individual business’ controllable profit margin).

Funeral operating EBITDA and cemetery operating EBITDA are defined above. Funeral and cemetery gross profit is defined as revenue less “field costs and expenses” — a line item encompassing these areas of costs: i) funeral and cemetery field costs, ii) field depreciation and amortization expense, and iii) regional and unallocated funeral and cemetery costs. Funeral and cemetery field costs include cost of service, funeral and cemetery merchandise costs, operating expenses, labor and other related expenses incurred at the business level.

Regional and unallocated funeral and cemetery costs presented in our GAAP statement consist primarily of salaries and benefits of our regional leadership, incentive compensation opportunity to our field employees and other related costs for field infrastructure. These costs, while necessary to operate our businesses as currently operated within our unique, decentralized platform, are not controllable operating expenses at the field level as the composition, structure and function of these costs are determined by executive leadership in the Houston Support Center. These costs are components of our overall overhead platform presented within consolidated EBITDA and adjusted consolidated EBITDA. We do not directly or indirectly “push down” any of these expenses to the individual business’ field level margins.

We believe that our “regional and unallocated funeral and cemetery costs” are necessary to support our decentralized, high performance culture operating framework, and as such, are included in consolidated EBITDA and adjusted consolidated EBITDA, which more accurately reflects the cash earning power of the Company as an operating and consolidation platform.

Usefulness and Limitations of These Measures

When used in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, our total EBITDA, consolidated EBITDA and adjusted consolidated EBITDA are supplemental measures of operating performance that we believe are useful measures to facilitate comparisons to our historical consolidated and business level performance and operating results.

We believe our presentation of adjusted consolidated EBITDA, a key metric used internally by our management, provides investors with a supplemental view of our operating performance that facilitates analysis and comparisons of our ongoing business operations because it excludes items that may not be indicative of our ongoing operating performance.

Our total field EBITDA, consolidated EBITDA and adjusted consolidated EBITDA are not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies due to different methods of calculation. Our presentation is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Funeral operating EBITDA, cemetery operating EBITDA, financial EBITDA, ancillary EBITDA and divested EBITDA are not consolidated measures of profitability.

Our total field EBITDA excludes certain costs presented in our GAAP statement that we do not allocate to the individual business’ field level margins, as noted above. Consolidated EBITDA excludes certain items that we believe do not directly reflect our core operations and may not be indicative of our normal business operations. A reconciliation to operating income, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, is set forth below.

Therefore, these measures may not provide a complete understanding of our performance and should be reviewed in conjunction with our GAAP financial measures. We strongly encourage investors to review the Company's consolidated financial statements and publicly filed reports in their entirety and not rely on any single financial measure.

RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

The Non-GAAP financial measures are presented for additional information and are reconciled to their most comparable GAAP measures, all of which are reflected in the tables below.

Outlook for the estimated year ended December 31, 2025:

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This earnings release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and contains certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking statements within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements made herein or elsewhere by us, or on our behalf, other than statements of historical information, should be deemed to be forward-looking statements, which include, but are not limited to, statements regarding any expectations and projections of earnings, revenue, cash flow, investment returns, capital allocation, debt levels, equity performance, death rates, market share growth, cost inflation, overhead, preneed sales or other financial items; any statements of the plans, strategies, objectives, and timing of management for future operations or financing activities, including, but not limited to, capital allocation, organizational performance, execution of our strategic objectives and growth strategy, planned divestitures, technology improvements, product development, the ability to obtain credit or financing, anticipated integration, performance and other benefits of recently completed acquisitions, and cost management and debt reductions; any statements of the plans, timing and objectives of management for acquisition and divestiture activities; any statements regarding future economic conditions and market conditions or performance; and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing and are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effect on us. Words such as “may”, “will”, “estimate”, “intend”, “believe”, “expect”, “seek”, “project”, “forecast”, “foresee”, “should”, “would”, “could”, “plan”, “anticipate” and other similar words may be used to identify forward-looking statements; however, the absence of these words does not mean that the statements are not forward-looking. While we believe these assumptions concerning future events are reasonable as and when made, there can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we anticipate. All comments concerning our expectations for future revenue and operating results are based on our forecasts for our existing operations and do not include the potential impact of any future acquisitions, except where specifically noted. Our forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include but are not limited to: our ability to find and retain skilled personnel; the effects of our talent recruitment efforts, incentive and compensation plans and programs, including such effects on our Standards Operating Model and the Company’s operational and financial performance; our ability to execute our strategic objectives and growth strategy, if at all; the potential adverse effects on the Company’s business, financial and equity performance if management fails to meet the expectations of its strategic objectives and growth strategy; our ability to execute and meet the objectives of our High Performance and Credit Profile Restoration Plan, if at all; the execution of our Standards Operating and Strategic Acquisition Models; the effects of competition; changes in the number of deaths in our markets, which are not predictable from market to market or over the short term; changes in consumer preferences and our ability to adapt to or meet those changes; our ability to generate preneed sales, including implementing our cemetery portfolio sales strategy, product development and optimization plans; the investment performance of our funeral and cemetery trust funds; fluctuations in interest rates, including, but not limited to, the effects of increased borrowing costs under our Credit Facility and our ability to minimize such costs, if at all; the effects of inflation on our operational and financial performance, including the increased overall costs for our goods and services, the impact on customer preferences as a result of changes in discretionary income, and our ability, if at all, to mitigate such effects; our ability to obtain debt or equity financing on satisfactory terms to fund additional acquisitions, expansion projects, working capital requirements and the repayment or refinancing of indebtedness; our ability to meet the timing, objectives and expectations related to our capital allocation framework, including our forecasted rates of return, planned uses of free cash flow and future capital allocation, including debt repayment plans, internal growth projects, potential strategic acquisitions, dividend increases, or share repurchases; our ability to meet the projected financial and equity performance goals to our full year outlook, if at all; the timely and full payment of death benefits related to preneed funeral contracts funded through life insurance contracts; the financial condition of third-party insurance companies that fund our preneed funeral contracts; increased or unanticipated costs, such as merchandise, goods, insurance or taxes, and our ability to mitigate or minimize such costs, if at all; our level of indebtedness and the cash required to service our indebtedness; changes in federal income tax laws and regulations and the implementation and interpretation of these laws and regulations by the Internal Revenue Service; effects of the application of other applicable laws and regulations, including changes in such regulations or the interpretation thereof; the potential impact of epidemics and pandemics, including any new or emerging public health threats, on customer preferences and on our business; government, social, business and other actions that have been and will be taken in response to pandemics and epidemics, including potential responses to any new or emerging public health threats; effects and expense of litigation; consolidation in the funeral and cemetery industry; our ability to identify and consummate strategic acquisitions, if at all, and successfully integrate acquired businesses with our existing businesses, including expected performance and financial improvements related thereto; potential adverse impacts resulting from the announcement of the conclusion of the Board’s strategic review; economic, financial and stock market fluctuations; interruptions or security lapses of our information technology, including any cybersecurity or ransomware incidents; adverse developments affecting the financial services industry; acts of war or terrorists acts and the governmental or military response to such acts; our failure to maintain effective control over financial reporting; and other factors and uncertainties inherent in the funeral and cemetery industry.

For additional information regarding known material factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our projected results, please see “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in other filings with the SEC, available at www.carriageservices.com. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of the applicable communication and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except to the extent required by applicable law.