Critical Survey: BrightView (NYSE:BV) versus Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE:BFAM)

BrightView (NYSE:BV) and Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE:BFAM) are both business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for BrightView and Bright Horizons Family Solutions, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BrightView	1	3	2	2	2.63
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	1	4	3	0	2.25

BrightView currently has a consensus target price of $14.70, indicating a potential upside of 11.74%. Bright Horizons Family Solutions has a consensus target price of $128.29, indicating a potential upside of 25.10%. Given Bright Horizons Family Solutions’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Bright Horizons Family Solutions is more favorable than BrightView.

Volatility and Risk

BrightView has a beta of 1.28, suggesting that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bright Horizons Family Solutions has a beta of 1.41, suggesting that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares BrightView and Bright Horizons Family Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BrightView	2.10%	8.43%	3.21%
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	6.98%	17.07%	5.99%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.4% of BrightView shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of BrightView shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Bright Horizons Family Solutions shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares BrightView and Bright Horizons Family Solutions”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BrightView	$2.67 billion	0.47	$56.00 million	$0.04	328.88
Bright Horizons Family Solutions	$2.69 billion	2.16	$140.19 million	$3.48	29.47

Bright Horizons Family Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than BrightView. Bright Horizons Family Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BrightView, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Bright Horizons Family Solutions beats BrightView on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BrightView

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. Its customers' properties include corporate and commercial properties, homeowners associations, public parks, hotels and resorts, airport authorities, municipalities, hospitals and other healthcare facilities, educational institutions, restaurants and retail, and golf courses. This segment's customer base includes approximately 8,800 office parks and corporate campuses 7,100 residential communities, and 550 educational institutions. The Development Services segment offers landscape architecture and development services for new facilities and redesign projects. Its services include project design and management services, landscape architecture and installation, irrigation installation, tree moving and installation, pool and water features, sports field, and other services. BrightView Holdings, Inc. also operates as official field consultant to various league baseball. The company was founded in 1939 and is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.

About Bright Horizons Family Solutions

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. provides early education and childcare, back-up care, educational advisory, and other workplace solutions services for employers and families in the United States, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, and India. The company operates in three segments: Full Service Center-Based Child Care, Back-Up Care, and Educational Advisory and Other Services. The Full Service Center-Based Child Care segment offers traditional center-based child care and early education, preschool, and elementary education services. The Back-Up Care segment provides center-based back-up child care, in-home child and adult/elder dependent care, school-age camps, virtual tutoring, and self-sourced reimbursed care services through child care centers, school-age campuses, and in-home caregivers, as well as the back-up care network. The Educational Advisory and Other Services segment offers tuition assistance and student loan repayment program administration, workforce education, and related educational consulting services, as well as college admissions and college financial advisory services. The company was formerly known as Bright Horizons Solutions Corp. and changed its name to Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. in July 2012. Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.