Contrasting BGSF (NYSE:BGSF) and BrightView (NYSE:BV)

BrightView (NYSE:BV) and BGSF (NYSE:BGSF) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for BrightView and BGSF, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BrightView	3	2	3	1	2.22
BGSF	1	1	0	0	1.50

BrightView currently has a consensus price target of $14.52, suggesting a potential upside of 1.46%. Given BrightView’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe BrightView is more favorable than BGSF.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.4% of BrightView shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.2% of BGSF shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of BrightView shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of BGSF shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares BrightView and BGSF’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BrightView	1.70%	7.25%	2.73%
BGSF	-11.98%	-18.91%	-12.30%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BrightView and BGSF”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BrightView	$2.67 billion	0.50	$56.00 million	($0.07)	-204.40
BGSF	$93.31 million	0.64	-$11.43 million	($1.00)	-5.55

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

Volatility and Risk

BrightView has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BGSF has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BrightView beats BGSF on 12 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 BGSF

BGSF, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides consulting, managed services, and professional workforce solutions in the United States. It operates in two segments, Property Management and Professional. The Property Management segment offers office and maintenance field talent to various apartment communities and commercial buildings. The Professional segment provides skilled IT professionals in SAP, Workday, Peoplesoft, Hyperion, Oracle, One Stream, cyber, project management, management services, and other IT workforce solutions. This segment also offers finance, accounting, legal, human resource, and related support personnel. It serves its products to fortune 500 companies, and medium and small companies, as well as consulting companies. The company was formerly known as BG Staffing, Inc. and changed its name to BGSF, Inc. in February 2021. BGSF, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Plano, Texas.