Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, May 6, 2011

Article Excerpt

FIRSTSERVICE CORP., $35.77, symbol FSV on Toronto, serves the following areas of the real-estate market: commercial real estate; residential property management; and property improvement. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, revenue jumped 18.9%, to $478.4 million from $402.4 million a year earlier (all figures except share prices in U.S. dollars). The company saw higher revenue across all of its divisions: the commercial real-estate division’s revenue jumped 26.9%; residential-property-management revenue rose 14.6%; and property-services revenue rose 12.9%. Even with the higher revenue, earnings per share fell 6.7%, to $0.14 from $0.15, because of costs to integrate acquisitions. As well, the company’s commercial real-estate division hired more workers to prepare for future growth. FirstService’s long term debt of $259.3 million is a low 23.3% of its $1.1-billion market cap. The company should report higher revenue and earnings as the economy continues to recover. The stock trades at 18.3 times this year’s forecast earnings of $1.96 a share. FirstService is now a hold. WESTJET AIRLINES, $14.82,…