Why Matthews International Shares Dropped

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Matthews International (Nasdaq: MATW  ) , a company that makes memorialization products for funeral homes and cemeteries, dipped as much as 11% today after reporting disappointing third-quarter earnings results.

So what: For the quarter, Matthews reported a 2% decline in year-over-year sales to $227.5 million and a profit of $0.58, down 22% from the year earlier. Relative to Wall Street's expectations, Matthews missed EPS by $0.08. What's more, Matthews lowered its full-year earnings forecast to a range of $2.34-$2.40, which is below the current consensus of $2.57. Matthews blamed three factors for the earnings weakness: a decline in U.S. deaths which affected bronze memorial and casket products, a European market slowdown coupled with a weaker Euro currency, and higher costs and inefficiencies in its cemetery products segment. Management anticipates these problems will weigh on earnings over the near term.

Now what: Forgive the morbidity of the stock or my thought process, but I consider the products Matthews offers a near-necessity item. The company has strength in numbers considering that the only two certainties we face in life are death and taxes. As the population count heads higher, the potential for Matthews to profit over the long term only ticks up. With that being said, I would use today's weakness as a potential buying opportunity; the company's long-term trends are still intact and you'll get a modest 1% dividend yield to boot.

Craving more input? Start by adding Matthews International to your free and personalized Watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.