Short Interest in Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) Increases By 13.2%

Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 142,600 shares, an increase of 13.2% from the November 30th total of 126,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 86,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.7 days. Currently, 1.1% of the company's stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Carriage Services

In other Carriage Services news, VP Paul Donald Elliott sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.78, for a total value of $188,900.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 34,166 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,290,791.48. This represents a 12.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 11.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Carriage Services

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Carriage Services by 94.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 118,891 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,903,000 after buying an additional 57,821 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Carriage Services in the third quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Carriage Services by 228.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 20,433 shares of the company's stock valued at $671,000 after purchasing an additional 14,215 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Carriage Services by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 314,864 shares of the company's stock worth $10,339,000 after purchasing an additional 13,126 shares during the period. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Carriage Services by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 9,064 shares of the company's stock worth $298,000 after purchasing an additional 1,337 shares during the last quarter. 66.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Barrington Research upped their price target on shares of Carriage Services from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st.

Carriage Services Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE:CSV traded up $0.20 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.85. The stock had a trading volume of 65,858 shares, compared to its average volume of 103,803. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The company has a market capitalization of $606.64 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.93. Carriage Services has a 1-year low of $22.84 and a 1-year high of $42.13. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $38.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.51.

Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.19. Carriage Services had a return on equity of 23.52% and a net margin of 8.57%. The company had revenue of $100.69 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.49 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Carriage Services will post 2.5 EPS for the current year.

Carriage Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 4th were paid a dividend of $0.1125 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.45 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.13%. Carriage Services's payout ratio is 20.18%.

Carriage Services Company Profile

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.