Perma-Fix Environmental Services (NASDAQ:PESI) versus BrightView (NYSE:BV) Critical Review

Perma-Fix Environmental Services (NASDAQ:PESI) and BrightView (NYSE:BV) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

25.5% of Perma-Fix Environmental Services shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of BrightView shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.4% of Perma-Fix Environmental Services shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of BrightView shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Perma-Fix Environmental Services and BrightView, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Perma-Fix Environmental Services	1	0	0	0	1.00
BrightView	3	2	3	1	2.22

BrightView has a consensus price target of $14.10, indicating a potential upside of 40.09%. Given BrightView’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe BrightView is more favorable than Perma-Fix Environmental Services.

Profitability

This table compares Perma-Fix Environmental Services and BrightView’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Perma-Fix Environmental Services	-37.04%	-35.46%	-20.22%
BrightView	0.74%	5.03%	1.87%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Perma-Fix Environmental Services and BrightView”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Perma-Fix Environmental Services	$61.67 million	5.31	-$13.78 million	($1.13)	-13.66
BrightView	$2.67 billion	0.35	$56.00 million	($0.25)	-40.26

BrightView has higher revenue and earnings than Perma-Fix Environmental Services. BrightView is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Perma-Fix Environmental Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Perma-Fix Environmental Services has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BrightView has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BrightView beats Perma-Fix Environmental Services on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Perma-Fix Environmental Services

Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as an environmental and technology know-how company in the United States. The company through Treatment and Services segments. The Treatment segment offers nuclear, low-level radioactive, mixed waste, hazardous and non-hazardous waste treatment, and processing and disposal services through treatment and storage facilities. This segment is also involved in the research and development activities to identify, develop, and implement waste processing techniques for problematic waste streams. The Services segment provides technical services, including professional radiological measurement and site survey of government and commercial installations; health physics services; integrated occupational safety and health services; and consulting, engineering, project and waste management, environmental, decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) field, technical and management personnel and services; and waste management services. This segment also offers nuclear services, including D&D of government and commercial facilities, including engineering, technology applications, specialty services, logistics, transportation, processing, and disposal; and license termination support, such as project management, planning, characterization, waste stream identification and delineation, remediation/demolition, compliance demonstration, final status survey, reporting, transportation, disposal and emergency response. In addition, it maintains, services, maintains, calibrates, and sources health physics, IH and customized nuclear, environmental, and occupational safety and health instruments. The company provides its services to research institutions, commercial companies, public utilities, and governmental agencies through direct sales to customers or through intermediaries. Perma-Fix Environmental Services, Inc. was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

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.