Security National Financial earnings fall 38.6% to $6.166 million in the third quarter
Key Facts
Security National Financial’s after-tax earnings fell 38.6% to $6.166 million in the third quarter of 2026, compared with $10.048 million in the same period of 2025, according to the company’s results. Total revenue declined 10.5% to $79.942 million from $89.326 million a year earlier. Pretax earnings also fell 37.2% to $8.223 million, versus $13.102 million. The results place the third quarter in the context of declines in both profitability and revenue, rather than a drop in net profit alone. The company’s shares closed at $9.48 on November 6, 2026, before the results were published.
Earnings weakness extended to the nine months ended September 30, 2026, as after-tax net income fell 10.8% to $22.149 million from $24.832 million in the corresponding period of 2025. Earnings per common share for the nine months were $0.82, compared with $0.93 a year earlier. By contrast, book value per share reached $17.98 on September 30, 2026, versus $15.75 on December 31, 2025, after annual stock dividend adjustments. These indicators show lower realized earnings for the period alongside an increase in book value per share during the period specified in the company’s filing. The change in book value alone does not mean there was a corresponding improvement in income statement results.
The life insurance segment was the largest by revenue, but recorded declines in revenue and pretax earnings during the quarter. Revenue fell 2.1% to $49.725 million, while pretax earnings declined 16.5% to $8.341 million. The company said the average yield on its investment portfolio fell about 90 basis points year over year. It attributed this mainly to the timing of recognition of homebuilder profits, and also cited a lower provision for credit losses and lower returns from funeral financing. The segment’s results therefore combined a modest contraction in revenue with a larger decline in pretax earnings, according to the figures reported by the company.
Mortgage segment pressures coincided with weakening housing market indicators in Utah, where the company said pending home sales fell 27% in September 2026 compared with the same month of 2025, closed sales dropped 12%, and homes for sale rose 4%. In the first nine months of 2026, the mortgage segment posted a pretax loss of $3.276 million. These figures link the segment’s weak performance to a local market environment marked by falling sales and a rising number of homes listed for sale, while the results provided do not include a separate figure for the segment’s third-quarter result. The segment had posted pretax earnings of $66,000 in the third quarter of 2025, compared with $16,000 in the same period of 2024. The earlier comparison shows that the segment’s profit was limited in the year-earlier quarter.
The cemeteries and funeral homes segment followed a different course in the quarter and over the nine months. In the third quarter, its revenue rose 1.3% to $9.048 million, but earnings fell by about $500,000, or roughly 17%, year over year. Across the first nine months, segment revenue increased 8.6% to $27.349 million, and pretax earnings rose 9.1% to $7.72 million. The comparison shows that the improvement over the extended period did not prevent a decline in the segment’s earnings in the quarter alone. Shareholders’ equity increased by about $36 million, or 8.2%, during the quarter to $469 million; the chief executive said higher interest rates were a common factor behind this increase and the weaker performance of some businesses.
The company’s earnings had already declined in the third quarter of 2025, falling 34% to $7.815 million from $11.831 million in the third quarter of 2024. Company President Scott Quist described that quarter as “certainly weak in my view” and said its earnings were about $4 million below those of the third quarter of 2024. This provides context for the earnings decline recorded in the third quarter of 2026, with the figures and periods differing between the current results and that earlier comparison. The company is scheduled to hold its third-quarter results call on November 12, 2026, from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. Mountain Time. The company said the call will review the quarter’s results and provide an update on its three segments.