Principal Financial Group Inc. Acquires New Shares in Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV)

Principal Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE:CSV) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. nVerses Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Carriage Services by 550.0% during the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 1,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd grew its holdings in Carriage Services by 613.0% during the 2nd quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 1,861 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc increased its position in Carriage Services by 5,001.0% in the 2nd quarter. Perritt Capital Management Inc now owns 5,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $137,000 after acquiring an additional 5,001 shares during the period. EMC Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Carriage Services during the first quarter valued at $168,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new position in shares of Carriage Services during the second quarter valued at $207,000. 66.46% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CSV. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up from $32.00) on shares of Carriage Services in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Barrington Research upped their price target on Carriage Services from $39.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Carriage Services Stock Up 3.7 %

Shares of NYSE CSV opened at $40.65 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $34.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.72. Carriage Services, Inc. has a 52-week low of $22.05 and a 52-week high of $40.83. The company has a market capitalization of $618.69 million, a P/E ratio of 18.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.91.

Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $100.69 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $93.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Carriage Services, Inc. will post 2.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Carriage Services Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.1125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 4th. This represents a $0.45 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.11%. Carriage Services’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.18%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Carriage Services news, VP Paul Donald Elliott sold 5,000 shares of Carriage Services stock in a transaction 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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 34,166 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,290,791.48. The trade was a 12.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 11.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.