FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

FSV has been the topic of several other reports. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of FirstService from $217.50 to $210.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. TD Securities raised their price objective on shares of FirstService from $200.00 to $211.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $215.25.

FirstService Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of FirstService stock opened at $195.57 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $177.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.89 billion, a PE ratio of 62.68 and a beta of 0.99. FirstService has a 1-year low of $153.13 and a 1-year high of $201.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.94.

FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $1.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.40 billion. FirstService had a net margin of 2.61% and a return on equity of 18.24%. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.36 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that FirstService will post 5.27 earnings per share for the current year.

FirstService Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.275 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 30th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. FirstService’s payout ratio is 35.26%.

Institutional Trading of FirstService

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FSV. Norges Bank bought a new stake in FirstService in the 4th quarter valued at $98,615,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in FirstService in the 4th quarter valued at $48,541,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in FirstService by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 656,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $118,767,000 after acquiring an additional 229,889 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its holdings in FirstService by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 1,417,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $235,183,000 after acquiring an additional 224,125 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in FirstService in the 1st quarter valued at $30,523,000. 69.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About FirstService

FirstService Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides residential property management and other essential property services to residential and commercial customers in the United States and Canada. It operates through two segments: FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands. The FirstService Residential segment offers services for private residential communities, such as condominiums, co-operatives, homeowner associations, master-planned communities, active adult and lifestyle communities, and various other residential developments.