Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 1,608 Shares of BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in BrightView Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BV) by 3.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 51,967 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,608 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.05% of BrightView worth $667,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BrightView by 832.0% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 1,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,664 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of BrightView by 181.4% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,288 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,475 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of BrightView in the fourth quarter worth about $56,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of BrightView by 933.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,000 after purchasing an additional 7,306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in shares of BrightView in the fourth quarter worth about $179,000. Institutional investors own 92.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BV has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of BrightView from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BrightView from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 5th. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their target price on shares of BrightView from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BrightView currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.27.

BrightView Stock Performance

Shares of BV stock opened at $15.87 on Friday. BrightView Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $11.81 and a one year high of $18.89. The company’s 50-day moving average is $15.94 and its 200 day moving average is $14.73. The company has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -793.10 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 1.42 and a current ratio of 1.42.

BrightView (NYSE:BV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.02. BrightView had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 8.29%. The company had revenue of $662.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $643.29 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that BrightView Holdings, Inc. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at BrightView

In other news, major shareholder Kkr Group Partnership L.P. sold 11,600,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.40, for a total transaction of $167,040,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 21,533,123 shares in the company, valued at $310,076,971.20. This represents a 35.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.20% of the company’s stock.

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.