R Squared Ltd Acquires Shares of 1,630 Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV)

R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSV. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its position in shares of Carriage Services by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 11,371 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,000 after buying an additional 1,857 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its stake in shares of Carriage Services by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 38,414 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,031,000 after buying an additional 1,125 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Carriage Services by 9.2% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 15,134 shares of the company’s stock valued at $406,000 after purchasing an additional 1,279 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Carriage Services in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new position in Carriage Services during the third quarter worth about $4,310,000. 66.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Carriage Services Trading Down 1.6 %

CSV stock opened at $40.90 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $622.50 million, a PE ratio of 18.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.42. Carriage Services, Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.96 and a 52 week high of $42.67.

Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.19. Carriage Services had a net margin of 8.57% and a return on equity of 23.52%. The company had revenue of $100.69 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.49 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Carriage Services, Inc. will post 2.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Carriage Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.1125 dividend. This represents a $0.45 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Carriage Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.18%.

Insider Activity at Carriage Services

In related news, VP Paul Donald Elliott sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.78, for a total value of $188,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 34,166 shares in the company, valued at $1,290,791.48. This trade represents a 12.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 12.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Barrington Research lifted their price objective on shares of Carriage Services from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th.

About Carriage Services

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.