Carriage Services (CSV) Competitors

Hillenbrand (NYSE:HI) and Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, community ranking, dividends and media sentiment.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, HI or CSV?

Carriage Services has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Carriage Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hillenbrand	$3.05B	0.46	-$211M	-$3.81	-5.17
Carriage Services	$407.77M	1.65	$33.41M	$2.99	14.36

Is HI or CSV more profitable?

Carriage Services has a net margin of 8.57% compared to Hillenbrand's net margin of -7.12%. Carriage Services' return on equity of 23.52% beat Hillenbrand's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hillenbrand	-7.12%	15.00%	4.26%
Carriage Services	8.57%	23.52%	3.42%

Is HI or CSV a better dividend stock?

Hillenbrand pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.6%. Carriage Services pays an annual dividend of $0.45 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Hillenbrand pays out -23.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Carriage Services pays out 15.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Hillenbrand has raised its dividend for 18 consecutive years. Hillenbrand is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in HI or CSV?

89.1% of Hillenbrand shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 66.5% of Carriage Services shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Hillenbrand shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Carriage Services shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HI or CSV?

Carriage Services received 28 more outperform votes than Hillenbrand when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.13% of users gave Carriage Services an outperform vote while only 56.31% of users gave Hillenbrand an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hillenbrand	Outperform Votes 281 56.31%	Underperform Votes 218 43.69%
Carriage Services	Outperform Votes 309 69.13%	Underperform Votes 138 30.87%

Does the media favor HI or CSV?

In the previous week, Hillenbrand had 7 more articles in the media than Carriage Services. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Hillenbrand and 3 mentions for Carriage Services. Carriage Services' average media sentiment score of 1.13 beat Hillenbrand's score of 0.68 indicating that Carriage Services is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Hillenbrand	4 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Carriage Services	2 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, HI or CSV?

Hillenbrand has a beta of 1.56, suggesting that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Carriage Services has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts prefer HI or CSV?

Hillenbrand presently has a consensus price target of $32.00, suggesting a potential upside of 62.53%. Carriage Services has a consensus price target of $50.50, suggesting a potential upside of 17.59%. Given Hillenbrand's higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Hillenbrand is more favorable than Carriage Services.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hillenbrand	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Carriage Services	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Summary

Carriage Services beats Hillenbrand on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.