管理層發言
Good day, and welcome to the SCI Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to SCI management. Please go ahead.
Good morning. This is Trey Bocage, Director of Investor Relations and Strategic Finance. Welcome to our second quarter earnings call of 2025. We will have some prepared remarks about the quarter from Tom and Eric in just a minute. But before that, let me quickly go over the safe harbor language. Any comments made by our management team that state our plans, beliefs, expectations, or projections for the future are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors identified in our earnings release and in our filings with the SEC that are available on our website. Today, we might also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures can be found in the tables at the end of our earnings release and on our website. With that out of the way, I will now turn the call over to Tom Ryan, Chairman and CEO.
Thanks, Trey. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. This morning, I'm going to begin my remarks with some high-level color on our business performance for the quarter, then provide some greater detail around our funeral and cemetery results. I will then close with some thoughts about our earnings expectations for the rest of 2025. For the second quarter, we generated adjusted earnings per share of $0.88, which was more than an 11% increase compared to the $0.79 reported in the prior year period. We saw impressive increases in funeral revenue and gross profit, partially offset by slightly lower cemetery gross profit and higher corporate, general, and administrative expenses, which when combined, resulted in $0.05 of earnings per share growth from operating income. Below the line, the favorable impact of a lower share count and slightly lower net interest expenses resulted in an additional $0.04 of earnings per share growth.
Now let's take a deeper look into the funeral results for the quarter. Total comparable funeral revenue increased over $15 million or about 3% over the prior year quarter, primarily due to solid growth from both core revenue and core general agency revenue. Comparable core funeral revenues increased by $8 million or about 2%, primarily due to a healthy 3.3% growth in the core average revenue per service, which was modestly impacted by a 20 basis point increase in the core cremation rate. The favorable impact from the core average growth was partially offset by a 1.5% decrease in core funeral services performed. Core general agency and other revenue grew by an impressive $7 million, primarily driven by higher average commission rates derived from our new preneed insurance marketing agreement, which were partially offset by a decline in insurance-funded preneed funeral sales production. Funeral gross profit increased by about $15 million, while the gross profit percentage increased by 210 basis points or about 20%.
This gross profit increase was the result of the solid 3% revenue increase combined with managing our fixed costs below inflationary trends to about a 1% increase for the quarter as we continue to focus on leveraging our scale, both in the field operations through staffing metrics and in our overhead support functions. Preneed funeral sales production decreased by $29 million or about 9% over the second quarter of 2024. Core preneed funeral sales production decreased by $18 million or 7%, primarily due to the transition to our new preneed insurance provider in July of 2024. We anticipate comparable core preneed sales production growth in the back half of 2025. Non-funeral home preneed sales production decreased $10 million or 14% as SCI Direct transitions from the sale of trust to insurance-funded preneed contracts. This transition has required many of our sales counselors in certain states to go through extensive training, obtain insurance licenses and change the payment terms for customers financing their preneed, all of which contributes to a temporary reduction in the number of contracts written.
As of today, we have made the transition in markets that represent 95% of our production. We expect that in early 2026, we will experience year-over-year growth again for SCI Direct as a whole. Now shifting to cemetery. Comparable cemetery revenue increased by $2 million or almost 1%. Slightly higher core revenue and higher other revenue accounted for the increase. Our core revenue increase of about $1 million over the prior year quarter was primarily attributable to a $3 million increase in at-need revenue, which was partially offset by a $2 million decline in recognized preneed revenue. Within recognized preneed revenue, higher preneed merchandise and service revenues, which include recognized trust fund income were more than offset by lower preneed property revenue, which was negatively affected by a lower recognition rate on new construction compared to the prior year. While recognized preneed cemetery revenue declined due to lower recognition rates, comparable preneed cemetery sales production increased by almost $19 million or over 5%, driven by a healthy increase in large sales as well as a modest increase in core sales.
While these incremental sales were deferred for revenue recognition in the second quarter, they should benefit future periods as we achieve the required payment criteria and/or complete construction of the project. Cemetery gross profit in the quarter decreased by $4 million and the gross profit percentage declined by 110 basis points, generating an operating margin percentage of 33%. Our modest revenue growth was offset by higher selling compensation on higher sales production. The profit decline was partially mitigated by less than inflationary fixed cost growth of 1% as we continue to focus on leveraging our scale, both in the field operations and in our overhead support functions. Now let's shift to a discussion about our outlook for the remainder of 2025. As you saw in the earnings release, we are confirming our normalized earnings per share guidance range of $3.70 to $4 for 2025, and we are raising our cash flow outlook due to stronger working capital trends in the business as well as anticipated lower cash taxes from recent legislative changes that were enacted.
For the back half of 2025, we expect growth in revenues and margins for both the funeral and cemetery segments, resulting in impressive earnings per share growth versus the prior year 6-month period as well as compared sequentially to the first 6 months of 2025. We also expect both preneed cemetery sales production as well as preneed funeral sales production to grow at low to mid-single-digit percentages over the prior year 6-month period. Below the line, we expect the favorable impact from a lower share count will be substantially negated by a higher effective tax rate, particularly in the third quarter as we compare to a prior year rate reduced by the deductibility of excess tax benefits from certain stock option exercises, which is no longer deductible for us in 2025. In conclusion, I want to acknowledge and thank the entire SCI team for their daily commitment to our customers, our communities, and one another.
Your skill, dedication, compassion, and attention to detail is the foundation of our success. While I know many of our professional team members help client families navigate painful loss every day, I would like to particularly recognize our Texas teams who have been caring for so many families impacted by the heartbreaking tragedy that occurred on July 4 in the Texas Hill Country. What I have witnessed and heard from countless friends and colleagues, including other independent funeral operators, is that our teams have performed above and beyond. Thank you for being a source of strength, respect, and peace. Your grace and compassion will never be forgotten. Thank you all for making a difference every day. And with that, operator, I'll turn it over to Eric.
Thanks, Tom. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. I want to echo some of Tom's earlier comments and express our deep gratitude to all our associates. Your outstanding service and commitment enable us to assist client families during some of the toughest moments in their lives. Your efforts truly make a difference, and we are grateful and proud of all you do for the families and communities we serve. With that, I'll transition to my remarks, starting with highlights on our cash flow and capital investments for this quarter. I'll also comment on corporate G&A expenses and provide an update on our overall financial position. We generated adjusted operating cash flow of $168 million during the quarter. After accounting for $84 million in higher cash taxes, this represents a $33 million increase from the prior year. Breaking this down, our funeral and cemetery business saw adjusted operating cash flow bolstered by increased gross profits of nearly $14 million during the quarter.
Additionally, we benefited from a net $43 million in working capital, driven by $20 million in higher cemetery installment receipts and $23 million from payroll payables and other timing-related working capital items. However, these gains were partially offset by an increase in corporate G&A expenses and a $14 million rise in cash interest, attributable to the timing of bond financing and the reduction of our bank credit facility from last September. Lower rates on floating rate debt were largely balanced out by higher floating rate balances for the remainder of the quarter. Regarding cash taxes, they reached $94 million, which is $84 million higher than the previous year, as expected, given prior communications about this topic. Now, moving on to capital investments. We allocated $100 million this quarter across existing locations, cemetery developments, new builds, business acquisitions, and real estate.
Of this investment, $69 million went towards maintenance capital primarily for our current funeral homes and cemeteries, which aligns with our expectations. Out of this, $35 million was dedicated to highly profitable cemetery development projects, $29 million for current funeral and cemetery locations, and $5 million for digital and corporate expenses. Additionally, we spent $18 million of growth capital on real estate purchases and the construction of new facilities, plus $13 million on business acquisitions. We remain optimistic about our acquisition pipeline and aim to meet our target of $75 million to $125 million in acquisitions for the full year of 2025. Regarding capital distributions, we returned $239 million to our shareholders in the second quarter by way of $45 million in dividends and $194 million in share repurchases. We bought back about 2.5 million shares at an average price of approximately $78, reducing the number of outstanding shares to over 140 million by the end of the quarter.
Year-to-date, we've repurchased 4.1 million shares at a similar average price, totaling $320 million returned to shareholders through this program. After the quarter, we completed an additional buyback of 0.5 million shares for about $39 million at an average price of around $79. Now let’s look at our corporate G&A expenses for the quarter. After adjusting for a $6.4 million pretax estimated charge for legal matters, G&A expenses increased by $4.1 million compared to the previous quarter. This change was mainly due to rising general and auto liability insurance costs and increased expenses related to timing of incentive compensation accruals. We expect recurring G&A expenses to average around $40 million per quarter moving forward, though there may be some variance due to our long-term incentive compensation plans. As for our outlook for the remainder of the year, we have revised our adjusted operating cash flow guidance for 2025 to a range of $880 million to $940 million, with a new midpoint of $910 million, which is a $50 million increase from the original guidance.
About $30 million of this increase relates to cash taxes, while $20 million is mainly due to stronger-than-expected preneed customer installment receipts. After accounting for $315 million in expected maintenance capital for the full year, we anticipate nearly $600 million in adjusted free cash flow for 2025. As mentioned in past quarters, we expect cash taxes to return to more normalized levels compared to 2024, following a change in tax accounting methods. Previously, we anticipated a $150 million increase in cash taxes year-over-year; however, we now only expect an increase of about $120 million due to new federal tax legislation. Consequently, we now estimate cash taxes for the full year to be $145 million. Our effective tax rate is projected to be between 25% to 26% in 2025 as we no longer recognize excess tax benefits from certain executive employee share-based awards. Finally, updating you on our financial position, we maintain a manageable debt maturity profile with substantial liquidity.
At the end of the quarter, our liquidity was about $1.4 billion, which includes around $250 million in cash and about $1.2 billion available through our long-term bank credit facility. Our leverage stood at 3.68 times net debt to EBITDA, still within our target range of 3.5 to 4 times. Our solid balance sheet and liquidity, combined with strong cash flows, continue to support our capital investment strategy, granting us significant flexibility for long-term investments that benefit SCI, our associates, and our shareholders. In closing, I want to express how proud we are of the entire SCI team. The dedication with which we serve our customers during their times of need is truly inspiring. Thank you for all that you do. With that, operator, this concludes our prepared remarks, and we will now open the call for questions.
分析師問答
Our first question comes from A.J. Rice with UBS.
I have a couple of questions if that's okay. First, regarding the decrease in the recognition rate this quarter, do you think it's due to the usual volatility seen in cemetery production, or was there something unusual that caused it? It seems you believe it will return to a more typical recognition rate in the second half of the year, allowing you to book those sales. Is that an accurate way to view the situation?
Absolutely. Whenever we initiate a new project or expand our cemetery offerings, we typically share these developments with our sales team to presell these projects to our customers. As you're aware, this typically transitions from production to revenue, which corresponds to the recognition rate you mentioned upon project completion. This rate tends to fluctuate; usually, we see it in the low 90s during the first half of the year and the high 90s in the latter half. The low 90s noted in the press release aligns with what we observed last quarter. Therefore, as we complete projects and recognize revenue from previously sold inventory, we expect to observe a rise in the recognition rate during the second half of the year, reaching the mid to high 90s. I believe I mentioned last quarter that we would likely conclude the year around the mid-90s for this recognition rate, which is consistent with our year-end figures from the previous year. Essentially, the key takeaway is that this process naturally fluctuates, and there’s nothing unusual this quarter that disrupts that trend, which gives us confidence moving forward.
Okay. That's great. On the cremation rate, off and on for the last year, 1.5 years, we've seen the rate of increase seemingly moderate. I know you're up 20 basis points this quarter. Historically, we've forecast 100 to 150 basis points. That's created a revenue headwind that you've each year had to overcome. Do we think that we're entering a period where that pace of increase is going to moderate? Any thoughts on what you've been seeing in the cremation rate?
AJ, this has been kind of an ongoing debate between Jay and I, and I think he's winning. I think two things are probably impacting this. One is when you get to cremation rates in some of these larger metropolitan markets, they're already pretty high. So where you have a lot of volume, the cremation rate is probably starting to stall a bit because it's gotten to that level. And so the cremation changes are happening in probably more rural markets and places like that. And the other thing is just the demographic makeup. We probably serve a lot more consumers that are Hispanic customs, Asian customs, which may be lower cremation rates as you think about the population as a whole. So yes, we've kind of dialed back our expectations. I do think 20 is still a little low. But to probably say 50 to 80 isn't an area that we think probably as we go forward is our expectations.
Is there any way to translate that into at the 100 to 150 basis points, it's X percent headwind to revenue growth each year and now at the new 50 to 80, it's more like Y percent? Or is that probably a bridge too far?
I think we used to lose 1%. So if we implement a 3% price increase, it results in a 2% gain compared to the old model. Now, instead of facing a 100 basis point headwind, it seems more like a 50 basis point headwind. For example, our 3.3% increase in the quarter was due to the modest cremation rate. I believe we can start to project that closer to 3% rather than the previous estimates of around 2% to 2.5%.
Okay. And maybe just a final question on the comments around cash flow and the tax benefits from the federal bill, et cetera. Can you just, Eric, maybe comment a little more about what is stuff that you can realize this year? How much of a benefit versus stuff that's just going to persist? I know some of it is going to be permanent and some maybe just you taking advantage of things that are available on a shorter-term basis. Can you give us a little more flavor on how much this affects your thinking about long-term cash taxes?
Yes, I believe it does have an impact. When we discuss accelerated depreciation, it might seem like it's a one-time event, but it's actually about speeding up capital improvements. We're committed to an ongoing capital improvement program. For our maintenance CapEx of $315 million, we typically share that the actual maintenance portion is around $125 million to $135 million. This amount now qualifies for tax depreciation under the new law, which was not eligible before. I don’t see this as just a one-time advantage; it will provide ongoing benefits over time. Additionally, we have software, including our internally developed systems like HMIS and Beacon, that require continuous updates and maintenance. While we're still in the early stages of optimizing this process, we expect a $30 million benefit from cash taxes this year. However, I anticipate that we will continue to see similar benefits going forward.
Our next question comes from Parker Snure with Raymond James.
Just any comments on seasonality of funeral volumes in the back half of the year. It looks like the third quarter is a little bit of a tougher comp versus the last year. So just anything you would note in terms of your expectations for funeral volumes in third quarter versus fourth quarter?
You made an excellent point. When we consider seasonality trends over several years, we see that the third quarter can be a challenging comparison in terms of volume. However, the good news is that the preneed cemetery should provide an easier comparison. Therefore, we anticipate strong revenues from the cemetery in the third quarter, while the funeral segment may face a tougher comparison. Moving into the fourth quarter, we expect a slight moderation, with more typical seasonal patterns. That's a solid observation.
Okay. And then I know just on payment terms in preneed cemetery, I know there was a mention of installment receipts in the prepared remarks in terms of working capital. Has there been any changes in the customer financing or payment terms in preneed cemetery, whether that be percentage of money down at the beginning or length of payment terms?
No, we haven't made any significant changes in that area regarding longer installment terms or altering down payments. Generally, to recognize revenue from undeveloped property, a 10% down payment is required. Historically, in the first half of the year, we have offered some incentives that might lead us to not receive 10% down upfront, with the expectation that customers will complete payments by the end of the fiscal year, which then gets recognized in the latter half of the year. This ties back to the previous question about lower recognition rates in the lower 90s and higher rates in the upper 90s for the second half. However, we are not making any substantial changes. The truth is that installment payments are strong, likely exceeding our expectations. Consumers are holding steady in the cemetery segment, and we saw a significant increase in production during the COVID years. We may have underestimated the consistency of these installments compared to historical levels. The performance has been better than what we anticipated, contributing to an increase of $20 million in the $50 million midpoint of our cash flow, which we are very excited about.
Our next question comes from Tobey Sommer with Truist.
I wanted to ask a question about the financial benefit of the shift in life insurance partner. What sort of incremental benefit may you still get on an ongoing basis now that we've lapped the initial year? I'm not sure whether everybody was fully on board and fully sort of equipped to sell at scale, so there might be some ongoing benefits. So I'd love to get your thought there.
Yes. I think the incremental benefit is going to be in the type of insurance product that we sell, Tobey. So you get more benefit from a multi-pay versus a single pay, how much of your preneed sales streams going into pure insurance. If you're selling at levels in the mid-60s, low 70s, that's going to make a difference. So I think, again, as you mentioned, as people become more equipped to present the benefits of insurance that's something that we can focus on. But I also think having gone through this now, we feel like production is something that we can raise across the board. And that could be in the insurance product, it could be in the trust product. But we feel really good about our momentum going forward and growing whether it's an insurance product or a trust. But within the insurance bucket itself, it's the type of insurance product. And like you said, we've got counselors that are better at giving that presentation. We'd expect an ability to grow that bucket.
If we achieved 7% year-over-year growth in the reported quarter, will that be significant? Do you view it as a single point or a couple of points? How would you interpret that in numerical terms?
Yes, maybe a couple of points. I mean because, again, because you're lapping yourself and so you effectively have the similar rates that you had before. So now it just gets back to what is your production within that bucket. And the points that you're making are we've got a counselor that now is up and ready and sell insurance and knows how to do it, understands the benefit. So kind of just the normal perfecting the presentations. And so yes, that type of increase is not something we'd anticipate going forward.
Got you. My last question. From a pricing standpoint for preneed, have you changed the percent down payment required at all?
No.
Our next question comes from Joanna Gajuk with Bank of America.
So first, just a follow-up or clarification. Did I hear it right you said preneed sales production expect to grow low to mid-single digits in both funeral and cemetery. So is that for the full year? And did I hear it right, does it mean that you expect faster growth? Because I guess the cemetery preneed sales production was expected to be up low single digits for the year? Or was it a comment for the second half?
Yes. My comments were specifically regarding the second half of the year, where we anticipate low to mid-single-digit percentages for both preneed funeral and preneed cemetery. I don't have the annualized guidance in front of me, but preneed funeral has faced challenges in the first half. We expect a turnaround in the second half and to maintain that momentum into 2026. We’ve navigated through all the impacts from changes. In cemetery, we feel very optimistic. We experienced strong momentum, as I mentioned in the second quarter, with both large and core sales, and we expect that momentum to carry through the latter half of the year. We feel good about our position in the cemetery sales cycle.
So on the cemetery still for the year, I guess, it's going to be low single digits growth, maybe a little bit higher.
I think it could be low to mid. We can climb back into the mid as well. We feel confident that we need a mid- to high single-digit growth in the second half to achieve that. The first quarter was somewhat challenging, but the momentum in the second quarter makes us optimistic. We believe we can reach both low and mid growth for the year, depending on our success with large sales in core.
Right. And that was my other question in terms of the other specifics because you did say you saw a healthy increase in large sales and modest growth in core. So I guess in Q1, the problem was the large sales were down to more like a $30 million or so in the quarter. So what was the number in the second quarter for large sales?
Like $52 million. So we had a great second quarter as it relates to large sales. And I think, again, that compares back to last year's quarter. I want to say $38 million, if I'm remembering correct. So pretty healthy increase. And again, you can't get too excited and too depressed either way because these sales come in a little bit lumpy. So we had really good sales in the second quarter. I'd say July is off to a really nice start, but we still got August and September. So we feel confident that momentum is good. Cemetery sales should be impressive in the third quarter and carry into the fourth quarter.
Yes. And I guess if I might, a little bit different topic. So thanks for the July commentary, that was good to hear that, too. But on a different topic around your cash flows, right, increasing, it sounds like the $30 million benefit on the lower cash taxes might be a sustainable number. So if that's the case, how should we think about capital deployment? Does that change your appetite, say, doing more deals or maybe some other capital deployment opportunities that you would kind of be more aggressive on given the higher cash flows?
Yes, I believe we will continue to follow our established strategy. We will focus on investing capital where we expect the highest returns. We've made significant investments in shares during the first half of the year, and I anticipate that momentum will persist at this level. Our M&A program is progressing well. While we've spent $30 million so far this year, our guidance for investments stands between $75 million and $125 million, and I am confident we will reach that target. We have a solid pipeline, and just by progressing through our letters of intent, we could meet that guidance already, with many discussions ongoing. I think $75 million is a reasonable estimate for our M&A investments, and we are open to doing more if possible. Additionally, we are also focusing on greenfield investments, including new funeral homes and cemeteries. This program is robust, and we expect to allocate around $70 million to it this year.
There's potential for that amount to increase, but such projects take time, with a typical cycle spanning three years. At any given time, we have about 30 to 35 projects in progress, with roughly a third completing annually—a faster pace than we've seen in the past, which is exciting. While M&A provides immediate benefits in terms of EBITDA and cash flow, our construction projects also offer similar advantages, allowing us to create facilities that meet our specific needs, particularly modern venues for life celebrations. We see numerous opportunities ahead, consistent with our previous discussions, and we will keep investing in both M&A and new construction, as well as our share repurchase program.
Our next question comes from Scott Schneeberger with Oppenheimer.
I have a total of three points. Regarding cemetery preneed, we've heard that you're performing quite well in large sales. Could you elaborate on the core? It sounded like that was strong as well, certainly compared to expectations. Are you selling at the high tier? I believe the threshold to reach large sales is 80,000. Are you seeing sales in the 50,000, 60,000, 70,000 range, or is it more widespread across that? Additionally, is what you're observing in terms of overall velocity or volume trends increasing? Or is it more related to pricing and what you're achieving in the preneed cemetery?
So on the core, it just wasn't as big of a percentage increase. Obviously, it's the biggest chunk of our cemetery production. So it was a nice increase. But percentage-wise, large sales were much bigger. It's really across the board. We're not seeing it at any specific point. And again, back to your velocity versus pricing, both of those were positive within the core for the quarter. So all signs are looking good. It's hard to find anything we don't like right now, at least in the second quarter production. So all is good and really across the board, no specific price points, Scott, that I'd point out to you other than the over 80 that you already mentioned.
Moving on to the next section. Funeral revenue per service, that was a bit higher than we expected. It sounds like the lower cremation rate is contributing. I'm just curious, how sustainable is this plus 3% going forward? And what will be the drivers behind that?
I mean 3.3% might be a little higher than you'd anticipate going forward. But yes, I think we're pretty comfortable in that 2.5% to 3% range depending on the cremation rate change. We're really focused on discounts. I think I have done a good job of managing those things. And the other piece that wasn't as impactful for the quarter is keep in mind, what's coming out of the preneed backlog. The preneed backlog has the component of what did you write the Corpus at when you wrote the preneed, which we've done a really great job, and then you get the compounded interest if it's a trust product. So those type of things can have an impact on the average as well. But I think as we think forward, Scott, I think we feel pretty good about being able to come close to that 3% if cremation mix changes that we're seeing in most recent years hold.
I think you can confidently estimate it around the $40 million to $42 million range we've provided previously. It may be slightly higher than our previous estimates, but with general liability and auto claims, those tend to vary based on specific events. We experienced a significant number of these claims during the quarter. Additionally, as mentioned in my remarks, long-term incentive compensation accruals will also influence these figures. So, modeling around $40 million to $41 million or $40 million to $42 million serves as a solid baseline. It could potentially reach $44 million if the compensation accruals increase, or drop to $38 million if they decrease. Keep in mind that this variability could shift the estimates by a few million dollars. Overall, that's how I would suggest modeling for the second half.
We have a follow-up question from Parker Snure with Raymond James.
Just one more question. Just on the long-term growth algorithm of 8% to 12%. I know this year had a pretty strong benefit from the insurance transition. I mean now that preneed cemetery production is kind of comping at a higher rate, it's remained elevated post- COVID. Any thoughts that there's any change into the composition of your long-term growth algorithm? Or just now that preneed cemetery is kind of at an elevated rate, does that make it a little bit harder to grow on an organic basis? Just kind of any general thoughts on your long-term growth algorithm as we exit the year?
So Parker, we remain confident in that algorithm. There are certainly some tougher comparisons ahead, but there are also positive trends in our favor. For instance, with SCI Direct, we've managed to improve profitability to near breakeven. This is tied to our business operations and accounting methods. As we move forward and clear the backlog, we expect to see growth with higher averages. We are noticing positive trends, especially on the sales average in the funeral segment. I believe demographics will significantly impact both funeral and cemetery aspects. Therefore, we are optimistic about achieving an 8% to 12% growth and may even exceed that in the coming years. Overall, we are very satisfied with the guidance we are providing.
Okay. And then sorry, I know I said one last one, but actually one more. The L.A. fires in Rose Hill, are you sensing that there's any kind of continuing or lingering just disruption in that market? Or are all your KPIs that you track that, that property is kind of tracking along as it should?
I believe that while people are facing many challenges that will persist for years, it does not seem to significantly affect our business and sales capabilities related to that event. Unfortunately, there are still individuals who are struggling and trying to rebuild their lives, but this isn't noticeably impacting our sales process at the moment.
This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to SCI management for any closing remarks.
Thank you, everybody. I appreciate you being here, and we'll talk to you next quarter. Have a great week.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.