Q1 2026 Service Corporation International Earnings Call Transcript
Key Points
- Service Corp International (SCI) reported an increase in cemetery revenue and gross profit, supported by double-digit growth in preneed cemetery sales production.
- Preneed funeral and cemetery sales grew exceptionally well, reflecting continued success in building long-term customer relationships and future revenue visibility.
- Average revenue per funeral service increased meaningfully, demonstrating the strength of SCI's offerings and disciplined pricing execution.
- SCI maintained strong control over its cost structure, effectively managing controllable expenses and minimizing the impact on margins in a challenging volume environment.
- The company reaffirmed its 2026 normalized earnings per share guidance range of $4.05 to $4.35, indicating confidence in its ability to deliver within the stated earnings range.
- Total comparable funeral revenues decreased by $17 million or just less than 3% over the prior year quarter, mainly due to a decline in core funeral revenue.
- Funeral gross profit declined by approximately $23 million with the gross profit percentage down 300 basis points to just over 21%.
- The decline in funeral services reflects the impact of a strong flu season in the prior year quarter and broader first quarter mortality trends.
- Higher interest expense partially offset the favorable impact of a lower share count and a slightly lower effective tax rate.
- SCI experienced above-inflation growth in fixed cemetery maintenance costs, impacting profitability.
Good day, and welcome to the SCI first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to SCI management. Thank you, and over to you.
Good morning. This is Trey Bocas, AVP of Treasury and Investor Relations. Welcome to our first quarter earnings call. We will have some prepared remarks about the quarter from Tom and Eric in just a minute. But before that, let me go over the safe harbor language.
Any comments made by our management team that state our plans, beliefs, expectations or projections about the future are forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors identified in our earnings release
| Access to All Earning Calls and Stock Analysis | |
| 30-Year Financial on one screen | |
| All-in-one Stock Screener with unlimited filters | |
| Customizable Stock Dashboard | |
| Real Time Insider Trading Transactions | |
| 8,000+ Institutional investors’ 13F holdings | |
| Powerful Excel Add-in and Google sheets Add-on | |
| All data downloadable | |
| Quick customer support | |
| And much more... |
Trustpilot
We'd love to learn more about your experiences on GuruFocus.com and how we can improve!
Take Survey
