Carriage Services (NYSE: CSV) and StoneMor Partners L.P. (NYSE:STON) are both small-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitabiliy.
Dividends
Carriage Services pays an annual dividend of $0.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. StoneMor Partners L.P. pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 20.2%. Carriage Services pays out 16.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. StoneMor Partners L.P. pays out -128.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. StoneMor Partners L.P. is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Volatility and Risk
Carriage Services has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, StoneMor Partners L.P. has a beta of 0.72, suggesting that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
86.7% of Carriage Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.7% of StoneMor Partners L.P. shares are held by institutional investors. 18.2% of Carriage Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.8% of StoneMor Partners L.P. shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Profitability
This table compares Carriage Services and StoneMor Partners L.P.’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Carriage Services | 8.35% | 15.25% | 3.16% |
| StoneMor Partners L.P. | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Carriage Services and StoneMor Partners L.P., as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Carriage Services | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
| StoneMor Partners L.P. | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2.00 |
Carriage Services currently has a consensus price target of $57.00, indicating a potential upside of 131.52%. StoneMor Partners L.P. has a consensus price target of $12.00, indicating a potential upside of 84.05%. Given Carriage Services’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Carriage Services is more favorable than StoneMor Partners L.P..
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Carriage Services and StoneMor Partners L.P.’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Carriage Services | $255.01 million | 1.61 | $72.65 million | $1.18 | 20.86 |
| StoneMor Partners L.P. | $316.56 million | 0.73 | $4.14 million | ($1.03) | -6.33 |
Carriage Services has higher revenue, but lower earnings than StoneMor Partners L.P.. StoneMor Partners L.P. is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Carriage Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Carriage Services beats StoneMor Partners L.P. on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
Carriage Services Company Profile
Carriage Services, Inc. is a provider of death care services and merchandise in the United States. The Company operates in two business segments: Funeral Home Operations and Cemetery Operations. The Funeral Homes segment provides funeral services (traditional burial and cremation) and sells related merchandise, such as caskets and urns. Its cemetery products and services include interment services, the rights to interment in cemetery sites and related cemetery merchandise, such as memorials and vaults. It serves suburban and rural markets. It provides funeral and cemetery services and products on both at-need (time of death) and preneed (planned prior to death) basis. It also maintains trusts in connection with funeral home and cemetery operations, including preneed funeral trusts, preneed cemetery merchandise and service trusts and cemetery perpetual care trusts. As of December 31, 2016, it operated 170 funeral homes in 28 states and 32 cemeteries in 11 states.
StoneMor Partners L.P. Company Profile
StoneMor Partners L.P. owns and operates cemeteries and funeral homes. The Company operates through two segments: Cemetery Operations and Funeral Homes. Its Cemetery Operations segment sells interment rights, caskets, burial vaults, cremation niches, markers and other cemetery related merchandise. Its Funeral Homes segment offers a range of services, including family consultation, final expense insurance products, the removal and preparation of remains, provision of caskets and related funeral merchandise, the use of funeral home facilities for visitation, worship and performance of funeral services, and transportation services. It sells cemetery products and services both at the time of death, which it refers to as at-need, and prior to the time of death, which it refers to as pre-need. It operates approximately 310 cemeteries in over 30 states and Puerto Rico, and approximately 100 funeral homes in over 20 states and Puerto Rico.
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