Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI) Q2 2024 Earnings Conference Call August 1, 2024 9:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Allie O'Connor - IR
Thomas Ryan - Independent Trust Manager
Eric Tanzberger - Independent Director
Conference Call Participants
Joanna Gajuk - Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Parker Snure - Raymond James & Associates
Tobey Sommer - Truist Securities
A.J. Rice - UBS
Scott Schneeberger - Oppenheimer
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the SCI Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this event is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to SCI management. Please go ahead.
Allie O'Connor
Good morning. This is Ali O'Connor, AVP of Investor Relations of financial reporting. Welcome to our second-quarter earnings call.
We will have prepared remarks about the quarter from Tom and Eric and just a moment of. 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 may 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 it over to Tom Ryan, Chairman and CEO.
Thomas Ryan
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the call to the shore that up, we will begin my remarks with some high-level color or business performance for the quarter and provide some greater detail around our funeral and cemetery results. I will close with some thoughts regarding our earnings expectations for the rest of 2024.
For the second quarter, we generated adjusted earnings per share of $0.79, which compared to $0.83 in the prior year. The decline of $0.04 from the prior year was attributed merger anticipated decline in services performed. This decline was slightly offset by an increase in cemetery profits in better than expected results from recent acquisitions. Below the one. The favorable impact of a lower share count was offset by the negative impact of higher interest expense for the higher tax rate.