Financial Comparison: Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) vs. BrightView (NYSE:BV)

Deluxe (NYSE:DLX) and BrightView (NYSE:BV) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Deluxe has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BrightView has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Deluxe	0	3	0	0	2.00
BrightView	3	2	3	1	2.22

BrightView has a consensus target price of $14.10, indicating a potential upside of 25.95%. Given BrightView’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe BrightView is more favorable than Deluxe.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.9% of Deluxe shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of BrightView shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.4% of Deluxe shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.8% of BrightView shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Deluxe	4.91%	23.51%	6.12%
BrightView	0.74%	5.03%	1.87%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Deluxe and BrightView”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Deluxe	$2.13 billion	0.51	$82.10 million	$2.25	10.49
BrightView	$2.67 billion	0.39	$56.00 million	($0.25)	-44.78

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

Summary

Deluxe beats BrightView on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Deluxe

Deluxe Corporation provides technology-enabled solutions to enterprises, small businesses, and financial institutions in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It operates through Merchant Services, B2B Payments, Data Solutions, and Print segments. The Merchant Services offers credit and debit card authorization and payment systems, as well as processing services primarily to small and medium-sized retail and service businesses. The B2B Payments segment provides treasury management solutions, including remittance and lockbox processing, remote deposit capture, automated receivables management, payment processing, and cash application, as well as automated payables management, such as medical payment and deluxe payment exchange. The Data solutions segment offers data-driven marketing solutions, financial institution profitability reporting, and business incorporation services. The Print segment provides printed personal and business checks, printed business forms, business accessories, and promotional products. It sells through multi-channel sales and marketing, and scalable partnerships. The company was formerly known as Deluxe Check Printers, Incorporated and changed its name to Deluxe Corporation in 1988. Deluxe Corporation was founded in 1915 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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.