Quality brands offset high p/e

Article Excerpt

FIRSTSERVICE CORP. $191 is a buy for aggressive investors. The company (Toronto symbol FSV; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 44.2 million; Market cap: $8.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 0.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; www.firstservice.com) has two main businesses: FirstService Residential provides property management services such as collecting monthly condominium fees and maintenance services; and FirstService Brands offers a wide variety of property management services through several franchised businesses, including Paul Davis Restoration and CertaPro Painters. Revenue in the three months ended December 31, 2022, rose 19.0%, to $1.02 billion from $856.9 million a year earlier (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). If you factor out the contribution from acquisitions, revenue still gained 15%. Partly due to higher interest costs and taxes, earnings before one-time items rose just 0.8%, to $1.22 a share from $1.21. For 2023, FirstService’s earnings will probably improve 13% to $4.79 a share. The stock trades at 29.6 times that forecast. While high,…