William Blair Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Position in FirstService Corporation $FSV

William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) by 19.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 596,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 98,808 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in FirstService were worth $92,735,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FSV. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of FirstService by 79.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 318,648 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,880,000 after purchasing an additional 141,152 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstService by 40.3% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 59,389 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,856,000 after purchasing an additional 17,072 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of FirstService in the 1st quarter valued at about $38,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of FirstService by 55.3% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 2,599 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $454,000 after purchasing an additional 925 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of FirstService by 400.0% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 365 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FSV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on FirstService from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 27th. TD Securities set a $204.00 price objective on FirstService in a report on Friday, April 24th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on FirstService from $217.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Loop Capital initiated coverage on FirstService in a report on Monday, May 4th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $140.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of FirstService in a report on Friday, March 27th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $196.89.

FirstService Trading Down 1.1%

FSV stock opened at $131.66 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. FirstService Corporation has a 12-month low of $119.41 and a 12-month high of $209.66. The stock has a market cap of $6.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.19, a PEG ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s 50-day moving average is $139.18 and its 200 day moving average is $149.75.

FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The financial services provider reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. FirstService had a return on equity of 17.91% and a net margin of 2.92%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.92 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that FirstService Corporation will post 5.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

FirstService Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a $0.305 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 30th. This represents a $1.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. FirstService’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.46%.

About FirstService

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.