Market Movers Park Lawn Corp. fell with the release of weaker-than-expected third-quarter results as lower cemetery sales led to a decline in organic growth
The Toronto-based company reported earnings per share of 15 cents, falling 32 per cent year-over-year and below the Street’s 21-cent estimate as high financing costs for recent acquisition continues to weigh.
“Revenue growth from comparable operations declined 4 per cent year-over-year, better than our expectations of a decline of 5.8 per cent year-over-year,” said Stifel analyst Martin Landry. “The decline comes from lower comparable cemetery sales, which faced a difficult comparable year-over-year, coupled with a decision to halt the development of one cemetery, resulting in the cancellation of a large group contract. Funeral call volumes declined 5 per cent year-over-year, worse than our expectations of a decline of 2 per cent but were offset by a 6.7-per-cent year-over-year increase in average revenue per service. Since Q2/23, PLC closed/announced four acquisitions, bringing its total year-to-date to seven. This translated into higher revenues than expected but Q3/23 EBTIDA came-in in-line with expectations. We expect PLC’s shares to be flat [Friday] on the back of these results given the recent weakness.”