First Service Corp

I am reviewing this stock (TSX-FSV) as I received the annual report on this stock. They have just changed their annual report’s date from March 31 each year to December 31 each year. The unfortunate part of the annual report for December 31, 2008 is that they only showed the figures for the 9 months ending at this date. What I did on my spreadsheet was show 12 months ending at December 31, 2008. In order to do this I used Globe Investor site and various quarterly statements.

I last reviewed this stock on March 17th and March 18th of this year. At that time, I stated that I bought this stock in 2002 and I have so far have lost some 10% per year on it. The stock price has since improved so that that now I have just lost some 8.8% per year. I stated in my last report that I will looking, perhaps, to buy some more. I decided not too and basically because this is not a dividend paying stock.

The 12 month period to December 2008 was much better than the 12 month period to March 2008. However, I note that the expected earnings for 2009 have declined. The earnings for December 2009 is expected by all the analyst I looked at to be lower than that to December 2008. However, they all seem to expect the earnings for 2010 to improve again.

When looking at this stock for the 5 and 10 years periods to December 2008, you will see that the Revenues, Earnings, Cash Flow and Book Value are all up quite nicely. If you look at the stock growth, you will see that this is not good. However, if you look at the 10 year growth figure for the stock, it is up some 5.4% annually. This is not bad considering we are in a bear market.

This stock still has a strong balance sheet in that the Asset/Liability Ratios is over 1.50. The Liquidity Ratio at 1.20 is a little low, but you still have more Current Assets than Current Liabilities. The Return on Equity (ROE) is a healthy figure on this stock. Another thing that is good is that the Accrual Ratio is negative.

This company is a global diversified leader in the rapidly growing real estate services sector, providing services in the following three areas: commercial real estate, residential property management and property services. This is an international company, having business in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Its web site is www.firstservice.com. See my spreadsheet on this company at www.spbrunner.com/stocks/fsv.htm.

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website at www.spbrunner.com/stocks.html for a list of the stocks for which I have put up spreadsheets.