Exhibit 99.1

CARRIAGE SERVICES ANNOUNCES 2012 SECOND QUARTER RESULTS

RAISES ROLLING FOUR QUARTER OUTLOOK

HOUSTON – August 2, 2012 – Carriage Services, Inc. (NYSE: CSV) today announced results for the quarter ending June 30, 2012.

Mel Payne, Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We are halfway through what we believe will be another record year for our Company. Our operating leadership and performance plans are targeted and focused to position us for a strong finish to 2012. While death rates continued to be weak in the second quarter, we were able to increase earnings per share as a result of substantially higher revenues and Field EBITDA and Field EBITDA Margins from recent high quality acquisitions and higher trust fund financial revenue and earnings.”

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2012 SECOND QUARTER:

“After the major management reorganization last November, we were able to quickly update and implement a new Funeral Standards Operating Model and Strategic Acquisition Model, the successful execution of which contributed to our strong first half results. During the second quarter we focused on three major areas with the most upside potential in the fourth quarter and thereafter, i.e. rebuilding a new cemetery leadership organization and operating framework (less decentralized); structural changes and major modifications to management and compensation arrangements for our trust funds; and development of a capital structure refinancing strategy that could exploit the current historically low rate environment. All three of these programs were finalized during the second quarter, are being implemented in the third quarter and should be completed by the fourth quarter which in combination will substantially increase the sustainable earning power of Carriage starting with the full year 2013.”

“After establishing a theme of Carriage Services 2012 – A NEW BEGINNING, Bill and I empowered our new teams of leaders and employees to come up with ideas to increase sustainable earnings across all departments and field operations, including leadership competencies and organizational structure and reporting. We have been overwhelmed by the collaboration, teamwork and results, which has enabled us to find meaningful buckets of earnings potential that were already existing but previously not obvious or defined with a plan of achievement. We are now moving boldly and rapidly to realize all of our earnings potential, both as an operating company and consolidation platform. As a result, we are raising our Four Quarter Outlook ending June 30, 2013.”

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CARRIAGE SERVICES, INC.

NON-GAAP UNAUDITED INCOME STATEMENT

($000’s)

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CARRIAGE SERVICES, INC.

NON-GAAP UNAUDITED INCOME STATEMENT

($000’s)

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ACQUISITIONS

Carriage acquired a business during the second quarter of 2012 consisting of two funeral homes and one cemetery; the Lawton Ritter Gray Funeral Home, Gray Funeral Home and Sunset Memorial Gardens in Lawton, Oklahoma. On an annualized basis, these businesses are expected to serve approximately 400 families and generate revenue of approximately $2.0 million. Carriage has acquired twelve funeral homes and one cemetery during the trailing twelve months.

TRUST FUND PERFORMANCE

During the second quarter of 2012, Carriage’s discretionary trust fund performance was flat compared to a decline of (2.7%) for the S&P 500 Index and a gain of 1.8% for the Barclay’s High Yield Bond Index. Through the first half of 2012, Carriage’s discretionary portfolio gained 9.5% compared to 9.5% for the S&P 500 and 7.3% for the High Yield Index. The foundation for this excellent performance was the major asset reallocation from equities to fixed income during the second half of 2011 which continued through the first half of 2012. Carriage was able to match the performance of the S&P 500 in the first half even though we had an 83% allocation to fixed income securities and only a 13% allocation to equities in the discretionary portfolio as of June 30, 2012.

Carriage has continued into the third quarter to reduce the allocation to large cap cyclical equities and increase the allocation to fixed income and cash equivalents. The current yield as of July 31, 2012 on the fixed income discretionary portfolio (85% fixed income versus 11% equity) is 8.9%, and this large current annual income of about $12.7 million (up from $7.9 million on August 8, 2011) will be used to continue to grow the fixed income portfolio and selectively increase a group of seven core large cap growth equities.

Carriage’s investment strategy to emphasize current income in the discretionary trust fund portfolio will continue to benefit preneed funeral and cemetery contracts that will mature in the future, but more importantly, a large share of the growing income can be recognized and reported on a monthly basis as GAAP financial revenue and earnings from our cemetery perpetual care trusts. The major shift in allocation toward fixed income away from equities has resulted in a lower volatility portfolio with less risk of significant losses, but also less potential for large Non-GAAP withdrawable amounts as a result of large, realized equity gains as in 2010 and the first half of 2011. Carriage has already realized substantial capital appreciation from many of the core fixed income positions in high yield corporate bonds and “Too Big To Fail” preferred stocks that were purchased during the second half of 2011 and 2012, with realized gains of $6.5 million in the first six months of 2012 and unrealized gains of another $7.3 million currently available at the end of July.

Shown below are consolidated performance metrics for the combined trust fund portfolios (preneed funeral, cemetery merchandise and services, and cemetery perpetual care) at key dates.

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FREE CASH FLOW

Carriage generated Free Cash Flow from continuing operations in the second quarter of 2012 of $8.5 million compared to Free Cash Flow from continuing operations of $10.1 million for the corresponding period in 2011. The sources and uses of cash for the first six months of 2011 and 2012 consisted of the following (in millions):

FOUR QUARTER OUTLOOK RAISED

The Four Quarter Outlook reflects management’s current opinion on the performance of the portfolio of businesses for the rolling four quarter period ending June 30, 2013, and the performance of the trusts as well as our view of the financial markets. Factors affecting our analysis include, among others, funeral contract volumes, average revenue per funeral service, cemetery interment volumes, preneed cemetery sales, capital expenditures, execution of our funeral Standards Operating Model, acquisitions and Withdrawable Trust Income. The Four Quarter Outlook includes the Lawton Ritter Gray acquisition that closed in June.

ROLLING FOUR QUARTER OUTLOOK – Period Ending June 30, 2013

(amounts in millions, except per share amounts)

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Revenues, Consolidated EBITDA and Net Income for the four quarter period ending June 30, 2013 are expected to improve relative to the same period ended June 30, 2012, for the following reasons:

The Outlook also includes the Company’s new policy of withdrawing realized gains and income in excess of regulatory mandated amounts on a monthly basis from certain cemetery merchandise and services trust funds, which are estimated to be approximately $1.2 million for the rolling four quarter period.

CONFERENCE CALL

Carriage Services has scheduled a conference call for tomorrow, August 3, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. eastern time. To participate in the call, please dial 800-860-2442 at least ten minutes before the conference call begins and ask for the Carriage Services conference call. A telephonic replay of the conference call will be available through August 17, 2012 and may be accessed by dialing 877-344-7529 and using pass code 10016846. An audio archive will also be available on the company’s website at www.carriageservices.com shortly after the call and will be accessible for approximately 90 days. For more information, please contact Bill Heiligbrodt at bill.heiligbrodt@carriageservices.com or 713-332-8553.

Carriage Services is a leading provider of death care services and products. Carriage operates 164 funeral homes in 26 states and 33 cemeteries in 11 states.

NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

This press release uses Non-GAAP financial measures to present the financial performance of the Company. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, the Company’s reported operating results or cash flow from operations or any other measure of performance as determined in accordance with GAAP. The Company’s GAAP financial statements accompany this release. Reconciliations of the Non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP measures are provided at the end of the press release.

Certain state regulations allow the withdrawal of financial income from preneed cemetery merchandise and services trust funds when realized in the trust. Under current generally accepted accounting principles, trust income is only recognized in the Company’s financial statements at a later time when the related merchandise and services sold on the preneed contract is delivered at the time of death. Carriage has provided financial income from the trusts, termed Withdrawable Trust Income (loss) and reported on a Non-GAAP proforma basis within Special Items in the accompanying Non-GAAP Unaudited Income Statement, to reflect the current cash results. Management believes that the Withdrawable Trust Income provides useful information to investors because it presents income and cash flow when earned by the trusts.

The Non-GAAP financial measures include “Free Cash Flow”, “Funeral and Cemetery Field EBITDA”, “Total Field EBITDA”, “Consolidated EBITDA”, and “Adjusted Consolidated EBITDA” are reflected in this press release. Both Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Consolidated EBITDA are used by investors to value common stock. The Company considers Free Cash Flow to be an important indicator of its ability to generate cash for acquisitions and other strategic investments. The Company has included Non-GAAP Consolidated EBITDA in this press release because it is widely used by investors to compare the Company’s financial performance with the performance of other death care companies. Adjusted Consolidated EBITDA does not give effect to the cash the Company must use to service its debt or pay its income taxes and thus does not reflect the funds actually available for capital expenditures. In addition, the Company’s presentation of Adjusted Consolidated EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures in other companies’ reports.

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements made herein or elsewhere by, or on behalf of, the Company that are not historical facts are intended to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are based on assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable; however, many important factors, as discussed under “Forward-Looking Statements” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, could cause the Company’s results in the future to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein and in any other documents or oral presentations made by, or on behalf of, the Company. The Company assumes no obligation to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements made herein or any other forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the Company. A copy of the Company’s Form 10-K, and other Carriage Services information and news releases, are available at www.carriageservices.com.

– Financial Statements and Tables to Follow –

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CARRIAGE SERVICES, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(in thousands)

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CARRIAGE SERVICES, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(UNAUDITED)

(in thousands, except share and per share data)

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CARRIAGE SERVICES, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(UNAUDITED)

(in thousands)