Key Points
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Q2 adjusted EPS rose to $0.90 from $0.88 a year earlier, supported by cemetery revenue and trust-fund income despite lower funeral volumes and deferred cemetery revenue. SCI maintained its $4.20 full-year EPS midpoint and narrowed its outlook to $4.10–$4.30.
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Cemetery performance remained strong, with comparable revenue up 5% and preneed sales production increasing 8%. Funeral volumes declined 1.7% but showed improvement through the quarter, reaching roughly flat growth in preliminary July results.
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SCI raised its 2026 adjusted operating cash-flow midpoint by $50 million to $1.085 billion and expects approximately $750 million in free cash flow. The company returned $172 million to shareholders during the quarter through buybacks and dividends while ending with about $1.6 billion in liquidity.
Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI) reported second-quarter 2026 earnings per share of $0.90, up from $0.88 a year earlier, as growth in cemetery revenue and trust fund income more than offset pressure from lower funeral volumes and deferred cemetery revenue.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Ryan said the company expects stronger performance in the second half, forecasting solid revenue growth and margin expansion in both funeral and cemetery operations compared with the second half of 2025. SCI confirmed the $4.20 midpoint of its full-year adjusted EPS outlook and narrowed its guidance range to $4.10 to $4.30 per share.
Cemetery sales and trust income support results
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Comparable cemetery revenue rose $23 million, or about 5%, from the prior-year quarter. Core cemetery revenue increased $14 million, driven principally by a $15 million increase in recognized preneed revenue, including higher property revenue as well as merchandise and services revenue. Other cemetery revenue increased $8 million, primarily due to higher endowment care trust fund income.
Comparable preneed cemetery sales production increased $29.7 million, or 8%, during the quarter. Core sales accounted for $24.4 million of the increase, while large sales added $5.3 million. Ryan said SCI’s sales strategy centers on expanding sales counselor headcount, improving lead effectiveness, increasing preneed seminars and growing large sales.
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Cemetery gross profit increased $7 million, or 4%, while the margin remained roughly flat at 33%. Ryan said selling compensation weighed on current margins because compensation is recognized as incurred while a significant portion of the related preneed revenue is deferred. The company expects revenue coming out of backlog in future periods to carry lower associated selling compensation expense and higher relative margins.
SCI said large cemetery sales approached $50 million in the second quarter. President Jay Waring said the company has focused training on sales in the roughly $100,000 to $900,000 range, rather than relying solely on the largest private mausoleum transactions.
Funeral volume declines moderate
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Comparable funeral revenue increased $5 million, or about 1%, in the quarter. Comparable core funeral revenue rose $7 million, or approximately 1.5%, as a 3.3% increase in core average revenue per service offset a 1.7% decline in core funeral volume.
Ryan said funeral-volume declines moderated during April and May, followed by slight growth in June. Preliminary July results indicated volumes were approximately flat from the prior year, he said.
Non-funeral home revenue increased more than $2 million, aided by a 9% increase in average revenue per service. However, non-funeral home preneed sales revenue declined $5 million because SCI shifted urn deliveries on preneed contracts to the time of need. Ryan said the transition, completed late in 2025, is nearing its anniversary and should reduce the comparison impact over time.
Funeral gross profit declined about $7 million, with the gross margin falling 130 basis points to 18.5%. Management cited the effects of limited revenue growth in a high-fixed-cost business, as well as higher selling compensation tied to insurance-funded preneed sales. SCI has shifted more funeral preneed contracts from trust-funded products to insurance-funded products, which results in more selling compensation being recognized in the current period under GAAP.
Preneed funeral sales production rose $20 million, or 6.6%, with core preneed sales production increasing 8.3%. Ryan said the company expects selling-compensation comparisons to stabilize following the anniversary of its shift toward insurance products. He said SCI is operating at a steady-state mix of insurance-funded contracts in the low 90% range for SCI Direct and in the 70% range for its core funeral business.
Cash flow outlook raised
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Eric Tanzberger said adjusted operating cash flow totaled about $239 million in the second quarter, up $71 million, or 42%, from the prior year. The increase reflected $7 million of higher operating-income cash flow and $64 million of lower cash taxes, largely due to a renewable-energy investment credit.
Stronger cemetery preneed cash collections contributed about $36 million of working-capital benefit, which was largely offset by a roughly $37 million working-capital use associated primarily with the timing of an additional payroll funding, according to Tanzberger.
SCI raised the midpoint of its 2026 adjusted operating cash flow outlook by $50 million to $1.085 billion, citing better-than-expected working-capital sources from cemetery down payments and installment receipts. The company also increased maintenance capital expenditure guidance by $10 million to $335 million.
Based on those figures, SCI expects adjusted free cash flow of $750 million for 2026, up 18% from $637 million in 2025. Tanzberger said that on a normalized cash-tax basis, free cash flow would be about $680 million, still a 7% increase from the prior year.
Capital deployment and liquidity
SCI invested $120 million during the quarter in maintenance projects, cemetery development, growth initiatives and acquisitions. The company spent $15 million on acquisitions that added funeral and cemetery locations in California, Georgia and Delaware, bringing year-to-date acquisition investment to nearly $40 million. SCI maintained its full-year acquisition investment target of $75 million to $125 million.
The company returned $172 million to shareholders in the quarter through $123 million of share repurchases and just under $50 million in dividends. SCI repurchased more than 1.5 million shares at an average price of approximately $76 per share. Subsequent to quarter-end, it repurchased another 330,000 shares for about $26 million.
SCI ended the quarter with approximately $1.6 billion of liquidity, including $260 million of cash and nearly $1.4 billion available under its long-term bank credit facility. Its net debt-to-EBITDA leverage ratio was 3.77, within its long-term target range of 3.5 times to 4 times.
About Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI)
Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) is a leading provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services in North America. Through its network of funeral homes, cemeteries, memorial parks and crematoria, the company offers a broad array of end-of-life services, including traditional funeral ceremonies, memorialization, burial and cremation. In addition to core services, SCI provides grief counseling, pre-need planning and merchandise such as caskets, vaults, urns and memorialization products.
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Service Corporation International operates more than 1,900 funeral homes, over 450 cemeteries and 40 combination facilities across the United States and Canada.
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The article “Service Corporation International Q2 Earnings Call Highlights” was originally published by MarketBeat.
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