BrightView released its results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025 and hosted a call with investment analysts recently. Highlights follow.
BrightView believes its common stock is undervalued and has authorized a $100 million buyback of shares. For perspective, that number represents the approximate amount of cash generated by the business after paying for capital expenditures and interest for the 12 months ended March 31, 2025. Dale Asplund, the CEO, said, “We know that the value of this stock is well above $20.” A stock price of $20 per share would value BrightView at about a 10.8 multiple of adjusted EBITDA. At its recent stock price of $15.60, BrightView is valued at an 8.8 multiple, significantly lower than what we see in sales of large private landscape companies.
Normally, public companies are valued at higher multiples than private companies because public company shareholders can sell their stock at any time. For example, if a private company sold at a 10 multiple, a public company in the same industry might sell at a 12.5 to 14.0 multiple. In the landscape industry, this norm has not been true. Privately held companies have sold for larger multiples than BrightView’s valuation for several years. That situation means that investors think the growth in future cash flows of private landscape companies is greater and more certain than at BrightView.
That situation makes an acquisition strategy at BrightView more difficult. BrightView says that it will resume acquisitions when the time is right.
BrightView’s year-over-year customer retention improved by 1.7 points to approximately 82%. BrightView’s landscape maintenance business is still not growing (even after adjusting for the sale of US Lawns and the discontinuation of BES); it is exceedingly difficult to grow a business with a retention rate of 82%. BrightView’s construction business continues to grow at a modest rate (4.6%).
On the employee front, BrightView is seeing annual wage increases of 2% to 3%. In addition to wage increases, it is now providing crew members with paid time off as a benefit.
Interestingly, BrightView’s employee retention improved so much that its need for H2B visa workers in 2025 was half of its need in 2024 (approximately 2,000 H2B visa workers).