Contrasting Healthcare Services Group (NASDAQ:HCSG) and BrightView (NYSE:BV)

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.4% of BrightView shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.0% of Healthcare Services Group shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of BrightView shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Healthcare Services Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for BrightView and Healthcare Services Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BrightView	3	2	2	2	2.33
Healthcare Services Group	0	4	4	0	2.50

BrightView presently has a consensus price target of $14.52, suggesting a potential upside of 6.58%. Healthcare Services Group has a consensus price target of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.62%. Given BrightView’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe BrightView is more favorable than Healthcare Services Group.

Profitability

This table compares BrightView and Healthcare Services Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BrightView	1.90%	7.85%	2.98%
Healthcare Services Group	3.21%	16.04%	9.94%

Risk and Volatility

BrightView has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Healthcare Services Group has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BrightView and Healthcare Services Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BrightView	$2.67 billion	0.48	$56.00 million	($0.02)	-681.00
Healthcare Services Group	$1.84 billion	0.83	$59.06 million	$0.82	26.40

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

Summary

Healthcare Services Group beats BrightView on 10 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 Healthcare Services Group

Healthcare Services Group, Inc. provides management, administrative, and operating services to the housekeeping, laundry, linen, facility maintenance, and dietary service departments of nursing homes, retirement complexes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals in the United States. It operates through two segments, Housekeeping and Dietary. The Housekeeping segment engages in the cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitizing of resident rooms and common areas of the customers' facilities, as well as laundering and processing of the bed linens, uniforms, resident personal clothing, and other assorted linen items utilized at the customers' facilities. The Dietary segment provides food purchasing, meal preparation, and professional dietitian services, which include the development of menus that meet the dietary needs of residents; and on-site management and clinical consulting services to facilities. It serves long-term and post-acute care facilities, hospitals, and the healthcare industry through referrals and solicitation of target facilities. The company was incorporated in 1976 and is based in Bensalem, Pennsylvania.