Vanguard Group Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in FirstService Corporation $FSV

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) by 3.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,925,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 65,926 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 4.21% of FirstService worth $366,773,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its position in FirstService by 12.0% during the second quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 25,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,427,000 after buying an additional 2,706 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of FirstService by 26.7% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,019 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,924,000 after acquiring an additional 2,322 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of FirstService by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 275,849 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $48,169,000 after acquiring an additional 5,339 shares during the period. Fenimore Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of FirstService by 44.1% in the 3rd quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc now owns 144,633 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $27,551,000 after purchasing an additional 44,272 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in FirstService by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 433,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,231,000 after purchasing an additional 46,333 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 69.35% of the company’s stock.

FirstService Trading Up 2.2%

Shares of FSV opened at $158.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.16 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.77. FirstService Corporation has a 1 year low of $147.23 and a 1 year high of $209.66. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $157.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $170.55.

FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The financial services provider reported $1.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.36 billion. FirstService had a net margin of 2.64% and a return on equity of 18.69%. FirstService’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.34 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.305 per share. This is a boost from FirstService’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $1.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. FirstService’s payout ratio is currently 38.61%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FSV has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of FirstService in a report on Monday, December 22nd. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $217.00 price objective on shares of FirstService in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $202.00 target price on shares of FirstService in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, FirstService has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.67.

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.