Public Sector Pension Investment Board Grows Stock Holdings in FirstService Corporation $FSV

Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) by 427.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 21,482 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,406 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in FirstService were worth $4,094,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of FSV. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of FirstService by 0.9% in the third quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 453,889 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $86,461,000 after purchasing an additional 4,154 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC bought a new stake in FirstService during the 3rd quarter valued at $281,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of FirstService by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 199,446 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,992,000 after buying an additional 7,095 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of FirstService by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 159,559 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,394,000 after buying an additional 14,736 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PAX Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstService by 20.6% during the third quarter. PAX Financial Group LLC now owns 1,532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the period. 69.35% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FSV. Scotiabank raised shares of FirstService from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $220.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Friday, October 24th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $202.00 price target on shares of FirstService in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of FirstService from $230.00 to $215.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 27th. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a $217.00 price objective on shares of FirstService in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lowered their target price on FirstService from $225.00 to $216.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.67.

FirstService Stock Performance

Shares of FSV opened at $155.75 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.69, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market cap of $7.12 billion, a PE ratio of 49.29, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 1.06. FirstService Corporation has a 12 month low of $147.23 and a 12 month high of $209.66. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $157.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $171.73.

FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. FirstService had a return on equity of 18.69% and a net margin of 2.64%.The firm had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.36 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that FirstService Corporation will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstService Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a $0.305 dividend. This represents a $1.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. This is an increase from FirstService’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. FirstService’s payout ratio is 34.81%.

FirstService Profile

FirstService Corporation, founded in 1989 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, is a leading provider of property services in North America. The company operates through two principal segments—FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands—offering a broad range of services to residential, commercial and homeowner association clients.

FirstService Residential delivers community management, financial oversight and consulting services to thousands of residential communities across the United States and Canada.