BrightView (NYSE:BV) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

BrightView (NYSE:BV) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of BrightView from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of BrightView from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $17.27.

BrightView Trading Up 3.6%

BV opened at $15.69 on Friday. BrightView has a 12-month low of $11.81 and a 12-month high of $18.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of -784.11 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $15.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.77.

BrightView (NYSE:BV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.02. BrightView had a return on equity of 8.29% and a net margin of 1.65%. The business had revenue of $662.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $643.29 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.11 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that BrightView will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BrightView

In related news, major shareholder Kkr Group Partnership L.P. sold 11,600,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.40, for a total value of $167,040,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 21,533,123 shares in the company, valued at $310,076,971.20. This represents a 35.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of BrightView

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in BrightView by 832.0% during the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,864 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,664 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of BrightView by 181.4% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,288 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 1,475 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BrightView by 58.7% in the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,418 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 1,264 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BrightView in the fourth quarter valued at $56,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in BrightView by 933.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,089 shares of the company’s stock valued at $104,000 after buying an additional 7,306 shares in the last quarter. 92.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.