One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$56.51 our estimate vs market $81.16
Wall Street consensus: $100.33 (77.6% higher than our fair-value estimate)
44% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Service Corporation International
SCI · NYQ · Consumer Cyclical · Personal Services
Current price
$81.16
52-week range
$68.41 - $90.99
Market cap
$11.06B
Balance sheet
Distressed
3.81x Stretched
Net debt $5.04B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
3 Risks
3 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.4% last year.
- Reward Returns 34.7% on equity, ahead of 75% of its peers.
- Risk Net debt grew 17.2% over 3 years.
- Risk Stock trades 3.2% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Service Corporation International
Service Corporation International is the largest provider of funeral and cemetery services in North America. A large part of its business comes from selling pre-arranged funeral plans, which provides a steady and predictable source of revenue (money a company receives from its sales) that isn't as affected by the overall economy. This means the company's performance is driven more by long-term demographic trends than by short-term economic ups and downs.
How the company got here
Service Corporation International, or SCI, was started in 1962 by Robert L. Waltrip, who grew up in his family's funeral home business in Houston, Texas. His idea was to buy independent funeral homes and run them together to share costs for things like staff and equipment, a strategy that helped the company grow. Over several decades, SCI expanded by acquiring thousands of funeral homes and cemeteries across North America, becoming the largest company in the deathcare industry. A key moment was in 1999 when the company created its flagship brand, Dignity Memorial, to unite many of its locations under one name.
What it actually does
SCI provides families with all the products and services needed when a loved one passes away. This includes traditional funerals, burials, and cremations, as well as the items that go with them, like caskets, urns, and cemetery plots. The company operates a large network of funeral homes and cemeteries under various brand names, such as Dignity Memorial, Neptune Society, and National Cremation Society. A significant part of their business also involves "preneed" sales, where people plan and pay for their own funeral arrangements in advance.
Funeral
This is the company's largest business segment, making up more than half of its revenue. It includes all the services related to conducting a funeral or memorial service, such as preparing the deceased, use of the funeral home for viewings, and transportation. Families also purchase merchandise through this segment, including caskets, burial vaults (a protective container for the casket), and stationery. SCI offers these services through a wide variety of brands that cater to different cultural preferences and price points.
Cemetery
The cemetery side of the business involves selling the rights to be buried in a specific place, such as a burial plot in the ground or a space in a mausoleum (a building for above-ground burials). This segment also generates revenue from selling cemetery merchandise like markers and headstones, and performing services like opening and closing the grave. A large portion of cemetery sales are made on a "preneed" basis, meaning people buy their plots long before they are needed. This provides the company with a steady, predictable source of income.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on a long-term strategy of growing revenue (the total money earned from sales), leveraging its large scale, and carefully managing its money to benefit shareholders. A key priority is increasing "preneed" sales, which locks in future business and provides predictable cash flow. Management also continues to acquire smaller, independent funeral homes and cemeteries to expand its network. They are also adapting to changing consumer preferences, such as the growing popularity of cremation, by offering a wider range of memorialization products and services.
Price history
How the share price has moved
—
Loading price history…
Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$162.84M
FY2024 Q4
$151.85M
FY2025 Q1
$232.96M
FY2025 Q2
$83.42M
FY2025 Q3
$150.66M
FY2025 Q4
$87.20M
FY2026 Q1
$253.90M
FY2026 Q2
$142.94M
Revenue
$1.10B
Net income
$124.83M
Diluted EPS
0.90
Operating cash flow
$238.65M
Free cash flow
$142.94M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.10B
Net income
$135.81M
Diluted EPS
0.97
Operating cash flow
$333.79M
Free cash flow
$253.90M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.11B
Net income
$159.40M
Diluted EPS
1.13
Operating cash flow
$212.94M
Free cash flow
$87.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.06B
Net income
$117.47M
Diluted EPS
0.83
Operating cash flow
$252.28M
Free cash flow
$150.66M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.07B
Net income
$122.86M
Diluted EPS
0.86
Operating cash flow
$166.43M
Free cash flow
$83.42M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.07B
Net income
$142.88M
Diluted EPS
0.98
Operating cash flow
$311.15M
Free cash flow
$232.96M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.09B
Net income
$151.35M
Diluted EPS
1.02
Operating cash flow
$264.12M
Free cash flow
$151.85M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.01B
Net income
$117.83M
Diluted EPS
0.81
Operating cash flow
$263.80M
Free cash flow
$162.84M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $56.51 vs current price $81.16
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $100.33 (77.6% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $56.51 a share — about 30.4% below today's price of $81.16, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $5.0B. Interest coverage 3.8x.
Net debt
$5.04B
Interest coverage
3.81x
Service Corporation International's profit covers its interest bill about 3.8 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here and 1 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
SCI
BASELINE
Service Corporation International
Total debt $5.30B Interest coverage 3.81x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $549.27M Interest coverage 3.46x -9% vs SCI Has roughly the same debt cushion as SCI.
Total debt $628.45M Interest coverage 0.32x -92% vs SCI Carries about 11.8x less debt cushion than SCI.
Total debt $122.32M Interest coverage 10.16x +166% vs SCI Carries about 2.7x more debt cushion than SCI.
What you should know
The case for and against SCI
3 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.4% last year.
-
Returns 34.7% on equity, ahead of 75% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Net debt grew 17.2% over 3 years.
-
Stock trades 3.2% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 3.0% (peer median: 4.8%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
21.19x
Forward P/E
17.65x
P/B
7.21x
P/S
2.53x
EV/EBITDA
12.17x
PEG ratio
1.47x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
26.0%
Operating margin
21.0%
Net margin
12.3%
ROE
34.7%
ROA
3.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
3.45x
Current ratio
0.53x
Quick ratio
0.43x
Total debt
$5.30B
Total cash
$260.41M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$4.37B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
1.0%
EPS TTM
3.83
EPS 5Y CAGR
2.5%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$1.04B
Free CF TTM
$554.25M
FCF margin
12.7%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
1.8%
Payout ratio
35.5%
Last ex-div date
2026-09-15