Forensic Analysis · Professional & Commercial Services · as of Aug 11, 2026
Carriage Services Inc (CSV)
A forensic read on Carriage Services Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
B · Sound & dependable
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.7
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
13.1
P / E (ttm)
20.2%
ROE
$551M
Market cap
1.22%
Dividend yield
3.3%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Carriage Services Inc earns a B (Sound & dependable) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.7, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
5.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 5.6% in the latest fiscal year and steady — well below its ~10% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
+19.7%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +19.7% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by receivables up +35% against revenue +3%. This is the third straight fiscal year of building accruals — a multi-year streak is a materially stronger tell than a single year's move. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 4% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
-0.2%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed -0% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (-0.2%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
$14M
FY2019–FY2020
Goodwill impairments.Took $14M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2019 ($700,000), FY2020 ($14M)) — about 47% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$417.4M
Revenue Growth YoY+3.3%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+4.1%
Net Margin12.3%
Free Cash Flow$40.1M
Return on Equity20.2%
Debt / Equity0.02x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Carriage Services Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?