FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV – Get Rating) (TSE:FSV) in a report released on Thursday. The firm issued a hold rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

FSV has been the subject of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on FirstService from $142.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. TD Securities lifted their target price on FirstService from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, February 8th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on FirstService from $160.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, January 26th. Finally, TheStreet raised FirstService from a c+ rating to a b- rating in a report on Tuesday, February 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $154.75.

FirstService Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of FirstService stock traded down $0.96 on Thursday, reaching $135.32. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 37,537 shares, compared to its average volume of 47,792. The company has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.57 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $139.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $128.85. FirstService has a 52 week low of $112.44 and a 52 week high of $148.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81.

FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV – Get Rating) (TSE:FSV) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $982.34 million. FirstService had a return on equity of 17.24% and a net margin of 3.23%. Equities analysts anticipate that FirstService will post 4.5 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstService Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 11th. Investors of record on Friday, March 31st will be issued a $0.225 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 30th. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. This is a positive change from FirstService’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.20. FirstService’s payout ratio is presently 29.67%.

Institutional Trading of FirstService

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in FirstService by 6.0% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 4,022,330 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $479,425,000 after purchasing an additional 226,966 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in FirstService by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 3,993,742 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $489,433,000 after purchasing an additional 85,703 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in FirstService by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,626,939 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $321,932,000 after purchasing an additional 61,747 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in FirstService by 71.4% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,864,158 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $227,913,000 after purchasing an additional 776,456 shares during the period. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC grew its holdings in FirstService by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 1,671,362 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $204,825,000 after purchasing an additional 109,988 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 72.57% of the company’s stock.

About FirstService

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FirstService Corp. engages in the provision of property services. It operates through the FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands segments. The FirstService Residential segment offers residential property management services in North America. The FirstService Brands segment covers residential and commercial customers through both franchise systems, and company-owned operations.