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Operator of employer-sponsored child care centers, back-up care and educational advisory services for working families.
Operator of employer-sponsored child care centers, back-up care and educational advisory services for working families.
Child-care centres are paid for mainly by parents' tuition, usually topped up by the employer that sponsors the centre; back-up care is sold to employers as a benefit and billed per use or as an access fee. Employer contracts run for years, though enrolment depends on staff working on site. It also operates in the UK and the Netherlands.
Moat: narrow (scale, switching costs, brand). Long-term employer contracts and a large center network create switching costs and scale advantages.
Headquarters: Newton, Massachusetts · Founded: 1986 · Employees: 32,200
Size Bright Horizons Family Solutions (BFAM) is a United States Consumer Discretionary company (Miscellaneous Commercial Services) with a market value of $2.57B, the 1639th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $53.52 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 24.2%, against -7.7% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 3rd lowest of 8 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 6.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +9.2%); the operating margin is 10.3% (peer median 16.4%).
Valuation It trades at 9.8× forward earnings against a peer median of 10.3× (3rd cheapest of 8).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 5% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +14%, so the hurdle is -9 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.4 points above its cost of capital (8.2% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 5.0% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 18 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $3.07B | $2.93B | $2.69B | $2.42B | $2.02B |
| Revenue growth | — | +9% | +11% | +20% | — |
| Gross profit | $707M | $739M | $632M | $485M | $374M |
| EBITDA | $414M | $456M | $382M | $271M | $192M |
| Net income | -$134M | $193M | $140M | $74.0M | $80.3M |
| Free cash flow | $253M | $259M | $240M | $165M | $118M |
| Capital expenditure | $103M | $92.2M | $97.3M | $91.0M | $70.6M |
| Total debt | $2.11B | $1.76B | $1.79B | $1.86B | $1.97B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Horizons Family Solutions BFAM | $2.57B | -24% | +7% | 10% | 9.8× | 5.0% |
| KinderCare Learning Companies KLC | n/a | -1% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | BFAM | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -22.3% | -18.6% | 3rd lowest of 8 |
| 6-month return | -24.2% | -7.7% | 3rd lowest of 8 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -49.4% | -23.2% | 2nd lowest of 8 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +6.7% | +9.2% | 3rd lowest of 8 |
| Operating margin | 10.3% | 16.4% | 3rd lowest of 8 |
| Forward P/E | 9.8× | 10.3× | 3rd cheapest of 8 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 5.0% | -6.1% | most demanding of 5 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +14.1% | +4.1% | highest of 5 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -9.1 pp | -10.5 pp | 3rd least demanding of 5 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.4 pp | +2.6 pp | 3rd lowest of 8 |
| EV / EBITDA | 11.0× | 8.1× | 2nd most expensive of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 4.8× | 1.3× | most indebted of 7 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Horizons Family Solutions BFAM | United States | $2.57B | -24% | +7% | 10% | 9.8× | 5.0% | +14.1% |
| Grand Canyon Education LOPE | United States | $3.07B | -29% | +7% | 28% | 11.1× | -7.3% | +5.6% |
| McGraw Hill MH | United States | $2.08B | -8% | 0% | 16% | 5.6× | -5.6% | +2.6% |
| Laureate Education LAUR | United States | $4.56B | +2% | +21% | 26% | 14.5× | -6.7% | +10.7% |
| TAL Education Group Sponsored ADR TAL | United States | $4.77B | -8% | +26% | 16% | 9.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Universal Technical Institute UTI | United States | $1.10B | +49% | +9% | 5% | 30.1× | n/a | n/a |
| Coursera COUR | United States | $989M | -35% | +44% | -4% | 6.4× | n/a | n/a |
| ADT ADT | United States | $6.66B | +44% | +2% | 25% | 10.3× | -2.9% | -0.7% |