Service Corporation International (SCI) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Service Corporation International published the results on October 28, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Service Corporation International reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and excluding special items, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• GAAP EPS was above adjusted EPS this quarter because of $11.2 million of pre-tax net gains on non-strategic divestitures of excess land, which SCI excludes as a special item.
• Comparable (same store) figures cover businesses SCI owned for the whole period from January 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026.

Source: Service Corporation International Q3 2026 results, October 28, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Service Corporation International splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Service Corporation International's Funeral revenue was $603 million in Q3 2026, up 5% from $574 million in Q3 2025, 54% of total revenue.
• Service Corporation International's Cemetery revenue was $505 million in Q3 2026, up 4% from $484 million in Q3 2025, 46% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release, Service Corporation International said:

“We expect fourth quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $1.10 to $1.20. Full year adjusted earnings per share are now expected to be $3.94 to $4.04.”

“While we expect year-over-year revenue growth, this outlook reflects lower funeral volumes than we originally anticipated, coupled with the continued impact of higher healthcare costs, as well as higher selling compensation and advertising and marketing expenditures supporting our growth in preneed sales production.”

“We are maintaining our full-year adjusted operating cash flow guidance, with a midpoint of $1,085 million, as well as our maintenance capital expenditure outlook of $335 million, resulting in expected adjusted free cash flow of approximately $750 million.”

Source: SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 28, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the SCI forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP revenue and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Service Corporation International's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 28, 2026

Service Corporation International reports two segments. In Q3 2026 funeral revenue was $602.6 million and cemetery revenue $504.6 million, for consolidated revenue of $1,107.3 million, up $49.2 million, or 5%, from $1,058.1 million. At September 30, 2026 SCI owned and operated 1,491 funeral service locations and 506 cemeteries, 317 of them combination locations, under brands including Dignity Memorial. (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

Funeral locations sell professional services for funerals and cremations plus merchandise such as caskets and urns; cemeteries sell interment rights (lots, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, cremation niches) and markers and other merchandise. SCI sells both at the time of need (atneed) and in advance (preneed). (SCI Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 12, 2026)

Comparable funeral revenue rose 3.3% to $588.2 million. Core funeral revenue grew 2.3% because core average revenue per service rose 2.8% while core services performed fell 0.5%. Total comparable funeral services were 83,638, against 83,686, and the core cremation rate rose 60 basis points to 58.2%. (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

Comparable cemetery revenue rose 4.0% to $503.4 million. Recognized preneed revenue was up $13.6 million, including higher trust fund income, and other revenue, mostly endowment care trust fund income, was up 19.7%. Recognized preneed property revenue grew 1.2% while preneed property sales production grew 4.2%, which SCI says pressures near-term cemetery margins and adds to the backlog. (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

SCI's backlog of future revenue from trust and insurance-funded preneed sales was $17.7 billion at September 30, 2026: $5.31 billion for cemetery contracts and $12.41 billion for funeral contracts. (SCI Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

Service Corporation International's GAAP diluted EPS of $1.03 was higher than its EPS excluding special items of $0.97 in Q3 2026. SCI removed $11.2 million of pre-tax net gains on divestitures and impairment charges ($0.08 per share), mostly from selling excess land, and the related tax effect ($0.02). (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

SCI said higher operating income and a lower share count drove the 11% rise in adjusted EPS. Diluted weighted average shares were 137.2 million, against 141.4 million, and SCI repurchased 4,009,333 shares for $317.6 million in the first nine months of 2026. Corporate general and administrative expenses fell to $30.6 million from $38.3 million on lower long-term incentive compensation and a favorable legal settlement. (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026; SCI Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 29, 2026)

The GAAP effective tax rate was 25.1%, down from 26.9%; the adjusted rate was 25.3%, up from 24.1%, which SCI attributed to lower non-taxable gains in the cash surrender value of life insurance policies. (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Service Corporation International gives an adjusted EPS outlook and a cash flow outlook in its release. After Q3 2026 it guided Q4 adjusted EPS of $1.10 to $1.20 and full-year adjusted EPS of $3.94 to $4.04, citing lower funeral volumes than it had expected, higher healthcare costs and higher selling and marketing costs. (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

SCI kept its full-year adjusted operating cash flow range of $1,055 to $1,115 million, with a $1,085 million midpoint, and its $335 million maintenance capital expenditure outlook, for expected adjusted free cash flow of about $750 million. (SCI Q3 2026 release, Oct 28, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Service Corporation International, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Service Corporation International's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning SCI is on is SCI a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the SCI forecast, and what the company does is on the Service Corporation International (SCI) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Service Corporation International published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.