Is Stewart Enterprises Six Feet Under?

"Forecasting Increased Volatility In Pandora Shares" is a headline that I saw this morning (02012.03.07) at SeekingAlpha.com. These days the headline can make a good fill in the blank: Forecasting increased volatility in ______ shares.

Stewart Enterprises (STEI) reports 1Q'12 results after the market closes today (02012.03.07). Stewart's FY ends Oct 31st. STEI is one of my favorite holdings even though the stock continues to languish as if the company has no future in the deathcare industry. STEI closed yesterday at $5.60. 52-week range: $5.11-$8.39. Right now, Finance.Yahoo.com is reporting the SIR (Short Interest Ratio) for STEI is a whopping 35.6. 10% of the shares are closely held and "institutions/mutual funds" own ~96% of the float.

[update::02012.03.08] "While the first quarter did not meet our overall financial expectations, ..." is not the way shareholders want CEOs starting off a press release.

I liked the following items from the 1Q'12 results: "Purchased 1.3 million shares of the Company`s outstanding common stock and paid $3.1 million in dividends. Generated operating and free cash flow of $7.8 million and $3.8 million, respectively." I also liked the following: "Since quarter-end, we have repurchased an additional 0.4 million shares of our common stock for $2.4 million, resulting in a 5 percent decrease in total shares outstanding in the last twelve months." Fewer shares outstanding imply larger pieces of the pie?

STEI closed yesterday 02012.03.08 at $5.65.

[update::02012.03.08] On a day when the NASDAQ was up 1.18%, STEI closed down 2.3% at $5.52. During the day STEI hit a new 52-week of $4.92. Volume was 2.5x trailing-3-month average.