Comparing Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) & McGraw Hill (NYSE:MH)

McGraw Hill (NYSE:MH) and Carriage Services (NYSE:CSV) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares McGraw Hill and Carriage Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
McGraw Hill	4.38%	62.57%	8.56%
Carriage Services	10.69%	19.23%	3.71%

Volatility and Risk

McGraw Hill has a beta of -0.85, suggesting that its share price is 185% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Carriage Services has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares McGraw Hill and Carriage Services”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
McGraw Hill	$2.10 billion	1.10	$35.32 million	$0.50	24.26
Carriage Services	$417.44 million	1.23	$51.51 million	$2.79	11.59

Carriage Services has lower revenue, but higher earnings than McGraw Hill. Carriage Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than McGraw Hill, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

66.5% of Carriage Services shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of McGraw Hill shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Carriage Services shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for McGraw Hill and Carriage Services, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
McGraw Hill	1	2	8	1	2.75
Carriage Services	1	1	3	0	2.40

McGraw Hill presently has a consensus price target of $17.20, suggesting a potential upside of 41.79%. Carriage Services has a consensus price target of $51.00, suggesting a potential upside of 57.70%. Given Carriage Services’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Carriage Services is more favorable than McGraw Hill.

Summary

Carriage Services beats McGraw Hill on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About McGraw Hill

At McGraw Hill, our purpose is to unlock the potential of each learner at every stage of life. Our mission is to support educators, learners and professionals around the world with trusted, high-quality content and digital solutions that use data and learning science to adapt to each student as they progress towards their goals. McGraw Hill is a leading global provider of information solutions for education across K-12 to higher education, and through professional learning. We harness the power of content, data-driven insights, and learning science to deliver personalized learning experiences and drive positive outcomes throughout the entire learning lifecycle. We believe that we have positively impacted hundreds of millions of learners and educators with our personalized learning solutions to support learning at scale worldwide. On an annual basis, we serve approximately 60 million learners and educators. We believe McGraw Hill is one of the most trusted and recognized education brands in the world. Based on the results of a third-party survey that we commissioned in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025, we believe that, in the United States, on average, 89% of K-12, higher education and medical school students, faculty and administrators would consider McGraw Hill for their classes. Understanding how learning happens is critical to building effective learning solutions, like ALEKS, which has leveraged data science and machine learning to enhance learning outcomes for over 25 years. Over the last decade, we have invested more than $2.0 billion in developing a suite of market leading digital learning solutions. We utilize our data analytics capabilities to generate continuous feedback loops that drive product and go-to-market innovation, which allows us to simplify workflows while creating meaningful learning experiences that are tailored to the needs of each learner. At McGraw Hill, we recognize that the integrity of educational content is of utmost importance, especially as generative AI becomes more integrated into the learning process. With the proliferation of AI-generated generic content, the risks of inaccurate and low-quality information are heightened, which is why our proprietary content is rigorously researched and designed to meet the highest quality standards. We aim to offer vetted content and data-driven learning solutions that educators and learners can trust. With approximately 1,500 sales professionals worldwide as of March 31, 2025, we believe our global sales force is one of the largest in the education sector, underpinning our ability to serve learners, educators and professionals at scale across the learning lifecycle. Our principal offices are located in Columbus, Ohio.

About Carriage Services

Carriage Services, Inc. provides funeral and cemetery services, and merchandise in the United States. It operates in two segments, Funeral Home Operations and Cemetery Operations. The Funeral Home Operations segment provides consultation services; funeral home facilities for visitation and memorial services; transportation services; removal and preparation of remains; sale of caskets and urns; cremation services; and related funeral merchandise. The Cemetery Operations segment sells interment rights for grave sites, lawn crypts, mausoleum spaces, and niches; related cemetery merchandise, including memorial markers, outer burial containers, and monuments; and interments, inurnments, and installation of cemetery merchandise services. Carriage Services, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is based in Houston, Texas.