New York, June 16, 2026, 11:02 EDT
- Service Corp International (SCI) shares dropped 3.9% to $73.96 on June 15, according to .
- Service Corporation International raised its quarterly payout to $0.36 a share. The dividend is set for June 30, with shareholders on record by June 15 qualifying.
- SCI bumped up its share buyback authorization to $600 million, kicking in June 11.
Service Corporation International slid back into focus for investors after shares took another step down at the same time as a series of headlines on shareholder returns. SCI lost 3.9% to close at $73.96 on June 15, according to GuruFocus. The stock was trading at $74.82 Tuesday, recovering from the previous close, and moving between $73.90 and $75.02 through the session.
Dividend growth is still the bright spot for SCI. In a June 16 piece, Kalkine Media pointed to the company’s new dividend increase and steady payout growth, which tracks with SCI’s funeral, cemetery and cremation businesses. SCI said back on May 6 that its board had hiked the quarterly cash dividend to $0.36 per share from $0.34, up 6%, with the payout going out June 30.
Service Corporation International said June 11 its board approved another $472 million for share repurchases. The company said it now has $600 million in total buyback capacity, counting $128 million that was still left from the previous program. Capital returns for SCI are not just about the dividend.
SCI’s first-quarter numbers got a look as the business picture stays mixed. Revenue hit $1.0965 billion, up $22.3 million, or 2% year over year. GAAP diluted EPS dipped to $0.97 from $0.98. Adjusted EPS moved up to $0.97 from $0.96. Operating cash flow increased 7% to $333.8 million. Chairman and CEO Tom Ryan said, “While funeral volumes may continue to fluctuate in the near term, they have historically been stable over the longer-term.” SCI Newsroom
Insider Monkey earlier put out a piece on SCI that lays out a bullish case, citing its North American death-care business, steady dividend, and cash flow. But the story also mentioned SCI isn’t in the top 40 stocks in its hedge fund database. At the end of Q1, 25 hedge fund portfolios held SCI, which was down from 30 in the previous quarter, according to the article.
SCI’s 2026 outlook stays the same; investors now have to weigh if dividend growth and buybacks can balance worries about weaker funeral volumes and valuation. The company kept guidance unchanged, calling for adjusted diluted EPS of $4.05 to $4.35 and adjusted operating cash flow of $1.005 billion to $1.065 billion.
