SCI Options Lean Bullish Ahead of Wednesday Print

Service Corporation International reports Q3 results on October 28 with one of the most distinctly bullish options setups in the stock's past year.

The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.21, the lowest reading in the past 52 weeks, running more than two standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.22. That is an unusually one-sided lean toward calls relative to the stock's own recent history, and it arrives as the shares have gained 6.7% over the past month to close at $83.31. Short interest at 3.1% of the float is modest and has fallen roughly 21% over the past 30 days, removing another layer of potential friction. Borrow conditions reinforce the picture: cost to borrow is low at 0.45%, and availability remains extremely loose at 1,324%, meaning there are more than 13 shares available to borrow for every one currently borrowed.

The analyst community is broadly constructive, though the consensus was last formally updated in late July after Q2 results. UBS lifted its target to $105 following that print, keeping a Buy, while JP Morgan maintained Overweight with a $100 target after trimming from $110 in May. The consensus mean sits at $100.33, roughly 20% above the current price. The bull case centres on pre-need cemetery and funeral revenue trends: comparable pre-need cemetery sales rose 5.3% year-over-year in Q2, and average funeral revenue per service accelerated to 3% growth. The bear case is narrower but real: regulatory risk from potential changes to the FTC's Funeral Rule, and a historical EPS growth record that has been uneven through economic cycles.

One institutional flow worth noting: Baillie Gifford trimmed its Schedule 13G position from 6.5% to 4.0% of shares, as disclosed in August, dropping below the 5% threshold. FMR (Fidelity) moved the other way, raising its stake from 4.7% to 5.9% across the same period. No 13D activist is on the register. As a reminder, Schedule 13G positions are event-driven disclosures around the 5% threshold, and holders who drop below may exit without a further filing. On the insider side, open-market activity has been absent in recent months. The trades on record from July and August were all option exercises paired with immediate sales, compensation mechanics rather than conviction signals.

Wikipedia attention for SCI is running more than 2.9 standard deviations above its own 90-day average, the highest retail attention reading the alt data layer has recorded for this stock. The print will test whether the operational momentum flagged in Q2, particularly on the cemetery pre-need side, held through Q3, and whether the company's pricing trajectory justifies a valuation that, at 18.5x earnings and 6.8x book, already prices in a fair degree of optimism.