R Squared Ltd Invests $65,000 in Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV)

R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,630 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $65,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Carriage Services by 4.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 314,864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,339,000 after purchasing an additional 13,126 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC acquired a new position in Carriage Services in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,310,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Carriage Services by 94.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 118,891 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,903,000 after acquiring an additional 57,821 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Carriage Services by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 82,238 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,700,000 after acquiring an additional 4,850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Praetorian PR LLC boosted its holdings in Carriage Services by 15.2% during the third quarter. Praetorian PR LLC now owns 80,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,626,000 after acquiring an additional 10,578 shares during the period. 66.46% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Paul Donald Elliott sold 5,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 34,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,791.48. This represents a 12.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 12.10% of the company’s stock.

Carriage Services Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of CSV stock opened at $40.90 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $622.50 million, a P/E ratio of 18.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.93. Carriage Services, Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.96 and a 1 year high of $42.67. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03.

Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Carriage Services, Inc. will post 2.5 EPS for the current year.

Carriage Services Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.45 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.10%. Carriage Services’s payout ratio is 20.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.