Firstservice Corp (FSV.TO)

(A Top Pick, May 5/16. Up 39%.) A great story and a great Canadian company. They maintain properties, gated communities and apartments. Also, owns College Pro Painters. He likes that they have a large US presence. When they sign contracts, it is for quite a long time. There is a lot of capacity to make acquisitions from mom and pop type businesses at a reasonable price.

(A Top Pick March 24/16. Up 40.87%.) They own College Pro Painters and California Closets. They also have a property management business, taking care of apartment buildings and gated communities in the US. They have a great way of growing their business, and there is lots of room to grow. When they start a contract with somebody, it is for a couple of years. It has run up a lot, so wait for a pullback before buying.

(Top Pick Feb 11/16, Up 45.62%) A lot of their assets are in the US. They manage gated communities. They also have brands like College Pro Painters. A great Canadian company.

(A Top Pick Feb 11/16. Up 32.48%.) A real estate management company, but also do a lot of other things. They have a large business in the US. Also, have a lot of branded businesses like California Closets, College Pro Painting, etc. Still a fragmented industry, and a lot of it is still “mom and pop”, so every year they make bolt-on acquisitions, so have done a very good job of slowly growing their business. Not a cheap stock, so you have to be careful getting into it. Buy it on weakness.

(A Top Pick Nov 9/15. Up 25.2%.) There are 2 parts to this business. They manage gated communities and apartment buildings in the US. The other business is a brand business where they own things like California Closets, College Pro painters, etc. A nice simple story. Most of its revenues come from the US.

This manages condominiums and multifamily residential units. He recently added this to his accounts. This is pretty attractive because they are able to consolidate the industry. The only reason he can think of as to why they are down is that they have stated they are trying to improve the quality of their relationship that they have, so are culling some of their contracts.

(Top Pick Oct 1/15, Up 29%) They are property managers for condos and gated communities in Canada and the US. They have a brand business as well. He likes the annuity business on the property management side, and that they are the largest but still a Mom and Pop business. They have organic and acquisition growth. They have great management. He continues to like it. Their largest cost is labour. They have done a very good job over the years.

(A Top Pick Oct 1/15. Up 40.69%.) They manage gated communities and apartment buildings. Also, have ancillary industries they own such as College Pro Painters. It’s a “mom and pop” industry, so they can do a lot of tuck-in acquisitions, so you should see some good growth. Also, there is good organic growth.

The more he gets to know the company, the more he gets to like their story. It is a high recurring revenue model. They do a lot of property management. They are able to bring services together from all over the US, and offer it at a higher margin. They then start to get into other businesses like Sentry Fire, California Closets, and they do some restoration businesses as well. They are taking some of these businesses private, which is quite accretive to the company. The company has a long runway. A very steady type business. Dividend yield of 0.9%.

(Market Call Minute.) A really well run company.

(A Top Pick Aug 20/15. Up 59.43%.) This will continue to be a great story. They manage condos in gated communities. Also, have auxiliary services, such as own pool cleaning services, College Pro painters, air conditioning, etc. A really interesting story because most of the business is mom-and-pop, and is heavily into the US relative to Canada. He would be a Buyer on any pullback.

Gated communities, condominiums, town house complexes need somebody to manage them. This company has been tremendously successful at upselling itself at landscaping, pool maintenance, fire protection, and security, all the services that people need. A fragmented industry ripe for consolidation with a huge market south of the border. Dividend yield of 1%.

A great Canadian story. Split from Colliers in 2015, and this was the property management side. They also have a number of brands such as California Closets, a restoration business, and recently made an acquisition to buy Sentry Fire which provides fire extinguishers, sprinklers, etc. Mostly in South-Eastern Florida. They have a huge amount of recurring revenue and are growing organically in the 5%-7% range. Their acquisitions are all small, mom-and-pop private businesses that they are able to buy at only 5X EBITDA, and they come from these with cash flow. This has a long runway in a fragmented industry. Dividend yield of 0.97%.

A real estate management company. They manage condos in Toronto, but their big business is in the US with a lot of gated communities. Expects a lot of growth of 15%-20% per year, because they can grow by good organic growth and acquisition growth. They also own things like College Pro Painters and California Closets which fits into their gated community holdings. Not cheap, trading at around 24X earnings, but there is good growth in it. Dividend yield of 1%.

An extremely well-run and well diversified business. They own businesses such as College Pro Painters and a home security business. Pretty big in property management in the US, especially the southern US.