Short Interest in BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV) Declines By 8.2%

BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,060,000 shares, a decline of 8.2% from the September 30th total of 5,510,000 shares. Approximately 8.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 540,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.4 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Baird R W raised BrightView from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of BrightView from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $13.00 to $17.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Loop Capital upgraded shares of BrightView to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of BrightView from $11.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded BrightView from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $13.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $15.47.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BV. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in BrightView in the second quarter worth $102,000. Kathmere Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in BrightView during the 2nd quarter worth $133,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new position in BrightView during the 1st quarter valued at about $155,000. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in BrightView by 73.1% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 13,563 shares of the company’s stock valued at $213,000 after buying an additional 5,727 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caxton Associates LP acquired a new stake in BrightView in the first quarter worth about $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.41% of the company’s stock.

BrightView Stock Up 1.7 %

NYSE BV traded up $0.28 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $16.66. 59,732 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 623,959. The company has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a PE ratio of 136.51 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. BrightView has a 52 week low of $6.78 and a 52 week high of $17.49. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.18.

BrightView (NYSE:BV) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $0.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.32. The company had revenue of $738.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $736.94 million. BrightView had a return on equity of 6.27% and a net margin of 2.06%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BrightView will post 0.66 earnings per share for the current year.

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.