Matthews International: Seeking Alpha opines on stock price “There is still a little life left”

Death care company Matthews International has had quite a stock run up so far in 2023.  And, this August 2, 2023, article from Seeking Alpha seems to say there is still room to move up for the company.  The article, entitled, Matthews International:  The easy money has been made, but there is still a little life left” can be accessed here.

For 2023 Matthews International has outdistanced any other company in the Funeral Director Daily Death Care Index (DCI) by an almost 4 to 1 margin in stock price appreciation.  Matthews has moved from a stock price of $30.44 per share on January 1, 2023, to a stock price, as of Friday, August 18, of $42.36 per share — an increase of 39%.

By comparison, the five stocks that make up the DCI have dropped a cumulative total of 3.1% since January 1, 2023.  And, if you would take the performance of Matthews International out of those five, the other four remaining stocks have cumulatively dropped by 5.8%.

The Funeral Director Daily DCI is comprised of the following public companies:  Matthews International, Security National Financial Corporation, Park Lawn Company, Carriage Services, and Service Corporation International.

Here is the Matthews International page from Seeking Alpha.

Disclaimer –– The author of this article holds stock positions, in Security National Financial Corporation, Park Lawn Company, and Service Corporation International.

Funeral Director Daily take:  It’s an interesting time for death care stocks.  To be transparent, while Matthews International’s Memorial segment may be doing fine, it is probably their operations in the production of batteries for the burgeoning EV automobile industry that is the main reason for their stock price appreciation.

And, it is a time that, in my opinion, is evident through the traditional funeral provider consolidators’ 2nd Quarter financial reports that rising interest rates and inflation are taking their toll on the profits of pure death care providers.  Moving forward, I think the stock price of those companies — SCI, Park Lawn Corporation, and Carriage Services —  will be dependent on how they deal with those headwinds.

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