Last Wednesday, cemetery operator StoneMor Partners
The units began trading at $22.40, and well, let me just say that Wall Street's traders are not the wimps you might think they are. They flipped those StoneMor units around like they were flapjacks, as volume on the Nasdaq quickly reached half the number of units floated -- nearly 1.9 million units traded hands! (Apparently, that's not uncommon. A little digging through Google's
Unfortunately for the early buyers of StoneMor units, the trading trended sharply downward as the units began to drop like, well, a stone (I just take the puns they give me) to close out the first day of trading at $21.60. Buried further on Thursday, they began to rise from the dead on Friday.
Inquiring investors want to know: Why all the fuss over a cemetery operator? Foolish Hidden Gems subscribers can answer that. Since StoneMor competitor and No. 2 U.S. cemetery operator Alderwoods Group
There's not a whole lot of industries that have that kind of guaranteed patronage built into their business model. StoneMor is one of them. Investors with a long-term view saw this, and on Wednesday, they took advantage of the chance to stake their claims.
Ever wary of vampires, Hidden Gems does most of its digging for high-quality, low-visibility small caps as far from graveyards as possible. Grab a shovel and come join us for a free trial excavation by clicking right here.
Fool contributor Rich Smith owns shares in Alderwoods, but in no other company mentioned in this article.