FirstService Corporation (NASDAQ:FSV) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Stephen MacLeod: Good morning. Just a couple of questions that I wanted to follow-up on. Just on the residential side. I mean, Scott, I think you sort of covered it off in your prepared remarks and the Q&A. But just curious, can you just confirm, are you seeing any macro impact to the residential business as it relates to residents’ ability to pay fees or cost pressures you’re seeing – pricing pressures you’re seeing on contracts, things like that.

Scott Patterson: There is two different things there. We’re not seeing any pressure on monthly management fees and delinquencies as it relates to the residents. But certainly, budgets are increasing at communities in terms of – primarily through increased in insurance premiums. And I would say, particularly in the risk areas, Texas and Florida, but generally in the high-rise environment. And so the increasing inflation across their cost structure is certainly put pressure on budgets. And put pressure on us around pricing, which is – Stephen, you followed us for a long time, I mean, that’s nothing new in this business for us.

Stephen MacLeod: Yes, yes, sorry. Yes, I know. That’s great, Scott. Yes. I mean pricing pressure is always there. That’s helpful. And then just as you think about the brands business in Q4 with the restoration business, we did see a couple of storm, we did see some storm activity in – earlier this fall. And I’m just curious, are you seeing any backlogs building from those storms? And then secondary to that, just when you think about Q4 and the comp organic growth sort of slowing against the tough comp. Can you just talk a little bit about what kind of margin impact that might have on Q4?

Scott Patterson: Right. Okay. I’ll deal with the first part of the question. We didn’t see a significant pickup in our backlog related to some of the regional events you spoke about in Florida, that storm really hit an area that wasn’t heavily populated or did not have much of a footprint as it relates to our national accounts. And then in the Northeast, again, similarly, it didn’t lead to a lot of mitigation and restoration work. Jeremy, over to you on margin.

Jeremy Rakusin: Yes. Thanks, Scott. Steve, yes, the lack of comparable weather-related activity means that margins will be down at restoration and that obviously impacts the overall FirstService Brands division. Again, we see that being down year-over-year, probably relatively similar coming in relatively similar sequentially to the current third quarter for that division.

Stephen MacLeod: Okay, I see. So you would expect Q4 margins to be similar to what they were in Q3, on the Brands…

Jeremy Rakusin: In the both – I mean obviously moving parts but directionally, yes.

Stephen MacLeod: Yes, yes. Okay, that’s great. I will pass back to line. Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Stephen Sheldon with William Blair. Your line is open.

Stephen Sheldon: Hey, thanks. Really nice job in the quarter. First, on the organic revenue growth in residential, I mean, it continues to be outstanding. I think you’ve historically said that sourcing labor for contracts is usually the biggest impediment or limited to growth. So, curious what you are seeing on the labor side right now? Is it getting any easier to source labor? And have you changed anything materially on the execution side to allow you to better recruit and retain labor?

Scott Patterson: The labor market continues to improve for us, and we are really seeing it across all the brands. FirstService Residential may be the best example because you have heard from us over the last few quarters that we have been filling our open positions and we are sort of back to historical levels. And I think the market has certainly eased. We are seeing more applications. We are filling more jobs more quickly. Our turnover has improved. But at the same time, the second part of your question, Stephen, we have certainly invested in resources and technology around recruiting and also onboarding. And so it’s hard to discern or put a pin on the improvement, whether we have been the architect of that or whether the market has come back to us, but it’s – yes, I think it’s a little of both.