FirstService Co. (NASDAQ:FSV) Short Interest Update

FirstService Co. (NASDAQ:FSV) (TSE:FSV) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 245,500 shares, a decrease of 22.8% from the February 28th total of 318,000 shares. Currently, 0.6% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 141,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FirstService

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in FirstService by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,794,676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $325,100,000 after buying an additional 23,103 shares during the period. FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of FirstService by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,057,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $191,524,000 after acquiring an additional 113,592 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of FirstService by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 656,097 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $118,767,000 after purchasing an additional 229,889 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in FirstService by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 556,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,632,000 after purchasing an additional 86,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in FirstService in the fourth quarter valued at about $98,615,000. 69.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

FirstService Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of FirstService stock traded up $3.96 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $169.91. 45,787 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 103,526. FirstService has a 52-week low of $141.26 and a 52-week high of $197.84. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $181.32. The firm has a market cap of $7.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.15 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.75, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

FirstService Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 7th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. This is a positive change from FirstService’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. FirstService’s payout ratio is currently 37.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James boosted their price objective on FirstService from $215.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of FirstService from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, FirstService currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.67.

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.