It's a morbid thought, but 590,000 deaths in 2016 (up from 588,000 in 2015) was a far better number than funeral service provider Dignity (DTY) had expected. It helped last year's underlying pre-tax profit figure of £75.2m beat consensus forecasts, but fails to explain why the share price fell 17 per cent on results day.
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To understand this is to understand the nature of Dignity's business, which is often as simple as high death rate equals good year, low death rate equals bad year. And historical data suggest the number of deaths could be "significantly lower" in 2017, according to management's outlook.