Argent Capital Management LLC Raises Stock Position in FirstService Corporation $FSV

Key Points

• Argent Capital Management increased its FirstService stake by 52% in the first quarter, bringing its holdings to 50,787 shares worth approximately $7.1 million. Institutional investors collectively own 69.35% of the company.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with eight Buy ratings and four Holds, producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $184.20.
• FirstService reported quarterly EPS of $1.75, beating estimates by $0.04, while revenue reached $1.44 billion, up 2.4% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.305 per share, representing a 0.9% yield.

Argent Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV - Free Report) TSE: FSV by 52.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,787 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 17,377 shares during the period. Argent Capital Management LLC owned about 0.11% of FirstService worth $7,056,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new position in shares of FirstService during the 4th quarter valued at $6,120,000. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of FirstService by 52.2% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 191,970 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $26,672,000 after acquiring an additional 65,830 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG boosted its stake in FirstService by 40.5% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 174,467 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $27,135,000 after purchasing an additional 50,263 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in FirstService by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,954,819 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $304,000,000 after purchasing an additional 29,805 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its position in FirstService by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 346,042 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $53,820,000 after purchasing an additional 10,970 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.35% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FSV shares. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating and set a $204.00 price objective on shares of FirstService in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of 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 restated a "buy" rating and set a $195.00 price target on shares of FirstService in a report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of FirstService from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c-)" rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, TD raised their price objective on shares of FirstService from $204.00 to $207.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $184.20.

FirstService Trading Down 2.5%

FSV stock opened at $140.89 on Friday. FirstService Corporation has a 1-year low of $119.41 and a 1-year high of $209.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The business's 50 day moving average is $140.60 and its 200-day moving average is $144.92. The firm has a market cap of $6.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.94.

FirstService (NASDAQ:FSV - Get Free Report) TSE: FSV last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The financial services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.44 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. FirstService had a net margin of 2.88% and a return on equity of 18.07%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.71 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that FirstService Corporation will post 5.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FirstService Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 7th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.305 per share. This represents a $1.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 30th. FirstService's dividend payout ratio is presently 34.56%.

FirstService Company 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.