BrightView (NYSE:BV) Lifted to Strong-Buy at Loop Capital

Loop Capital upgraded shares of BrightView (NYSE:BV) to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a sell rating and set a $10.00 price objective (up previously from $8.00) on shares of BrightView in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Baird R W raised BrightView from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of BrightView from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and raised their target price for the company from $13.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $13.80.

BrightView Price Performance

BV stock opened at $15.44 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $13.57 and a 200-day moving average of $11.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.20 and a beta of 1.30. BrightView has a 12 month low of $6.58 and a 12 month high of $15.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.67, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

BrightView (NYSE:BV) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $672.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $683.80 million. BrightView had a net margin of 1.80% and a return on equity of 5.78%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.12) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BrightView will post 0.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other BrightView news, major shareholder Kkr Group Partnership L.P. sold 17,500,000 shares of BrightView stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $12.48, for a total transaction of $218,400,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,133,123 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $413,501,375.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BrightView

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BV. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in BrightView by 59.6% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 7,302 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 2,726 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. purchased a new stake in BrightView during the 4th quarter valued at $91,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in BrightView in the 4th quarter worth $92,000. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in shares of BrightView in the fourth quarter valued at about $94,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of BrightView by 977.6% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 11,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,000 after acquiring an additional 10,509 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.41% of the company’s stock.

BrightView Company Profile

BrightView Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides commercial landscaping services in the United States. It operates through two segments, Maintenance Services and Development Services. The Maintenance Services segment delivers a suite of recurring commercial landscaping services, including mowing, gardening, mulching and snow removal, water management, irrigation maintenance, tree care, golf course maintenance, and specialty turf maintenance.