Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases New Stake in BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV)

Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 45,929 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BV. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in BrightView in the second quarter worth $13,086,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of BrightView by 28.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,140,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,772,000 after buying an additional 695,987 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BrightView by 150.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 632,394 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,954,000 after buying an additional 379,916 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its position in shares of BrightView by 704.9% during the 3rd quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 339,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,337,000 after buying an additional 296,931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in BrightView by 18.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,337,545 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,057,000 after acquiring an additional 206,359 shares during the period. 92.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of BrightView from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. BTIG Research assumed coverage on shares of BrightView in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $22.00 target price for the company. William Blair raised BrightView from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Loop Capital increased their price objective on BrightView from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on BrightView from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.11.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Jonathan Mark Gottsegen sold 29,658 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.06, for a total transaction of $476,307.48. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 100,354 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,611,685.24. This represents a 22.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

BrightView Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of BrightView stock opened at $16.02 on Monday. BrightView Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $7.75 and a 12-month high of $18.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion, a PE ratio of 145.65 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 1.44, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $16.77 and its 200-day moving average is $15.48.

BrightView (NYSE:BV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 13th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.02. BrightView had a return on equity of 7.65% and a net margin of 2.40%. The firm had revenue of $728.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $723.01 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.14 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that BrightView Holdings, Inc. will post 0.75 earnings per share for the current year.

BrightView 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.