SCI reports Q1 earnings April 29 with short interest still elevated but starting to show cracks. Shares have surged 13% over the past month and climbed another 6% this week alone, creating fresh tension between positioning and momentum heading into the announcement.
Short interest jumped 38% over the past month to 5.0% of the float, though the absolute level remains modest for a name getting this much attention. Borrowing costs are trivial at 0.47% and utilisation sits well below historical highs at 11%, down from the 14% peak hit in mid-March. The options market is leaning decidedly bullish — the put/call ratio has dropped to 0.27, well below its 20-day average and near the bottom of the 52-week range. That's a full standard deviation below normal defensive activity, signaling traders expect the rally to hold through the print.
The analyst community has stayed constructive but measured. JPMorgan initiated coverage in January with a $110 target, the most optimistic view on the Street, while Oppenheimer lifted its number to $97 in early April. The bull case points to cemetery pre-need sales, which accelerated 5% year-over-year in mid-2025, and improving funeral revenue per service. Bears counter with questions about long-term EPS consistency — the 14% CAGR from 2010 to 2019 masked wide swings — and potential regulatory headwinds from changes to FTC funeral rules. Valuation multiples have tightened with the rally; the P/E now sits at 20.2×, up more than a full turn over the past month, while EV/EBITDA has compressed to 12.3×.
Institutional holders added shares in Q1, led by T. Rowe Price's 2.7 million share increase and fresh positions from BlackRock and Vanguard. Insiders, by contrast, sold roughly 24,000 shares net over the past 90 days, though most of the activity came from routine equity-award exercises rather than discretionary liquidations. Recent earnings prints have been rough — the stock dropped an average of 4% in the five days following the last three releases, with February's report triggering a 6% one-day decline. The company's ORTEX short score sits just below 50, reflecting middling relative bearishness, while its 29th-percentile ranking among shorted names suggests the short thesis isn't resonating broadly.
The print will test whether the funeral services operator can deliver the cemetery sales momentum bulls have priced in while addressing the margin questions that have tripped up prior quarters.
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