Earnings jump for parent and spinoff

Article Excerpt

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $80.66 (Toronto symbol FSV; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (416-960-9500; www.firstservice.com; Shares outstanding: 34.6 million; Market cap: $2.9 billion; Dividend yield: 0.8%) spun off its commercial real estate business, Colliers International Group, on June 1, 2015, and handed out shares to its investors. Since the spinoff, FirstService has carried on with residential property management and its property improvement services for commercial and residential real estate. In the second quarter, ended June 30, 2017, the company’s revenue rose 12.9%, to $434.9 million from $385.1 million a year earlier (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). Excluding one-time items, earnings per share for the quarter climbed 17.3%, to $0.61 from $0.52 a year earlier. The big gain was the result of cost savings as well as the higher revenue. The company’s outlook remains strong. The spinoff of Colliers adds to its appeal. That’s because most academic studies suggest spinoffs and their parent companies do better than comparable firms for several years after they split…