Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) Short Interest Update

Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,210,000 shares, an increase of 14.5% from the July 15th total of 1,930,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 678,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Razvan Radulescu sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.08, for a total value of $235,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,186,636.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Blue Bird

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blue Bird in the first quarter worth $83,817,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Blue Bird by 36.0% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,911,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,292,000 after purchasing an additional 505,727 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Blue Bird by 279.5% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 415,310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,587,000 after purchasing an additional 305,868 shares in the last quarter. Brightline Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Blue Bird during the 4th quarter worth about $7,279,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 81.7% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 509,422 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,432,000 after buying an additional 229,004 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BLBD shares. Craig Hallum lifted their price objective on shares of Blue Bird from $54.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price (up previously from $52.00) on shares of Blue Bird in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. DA Davidson increased their price objective on Blue Bird from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Blue Bird from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Blue Bird from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $60.00.

Blue Bird Price Performance

Shares of BLBD stock traded down $1.00 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $47.95. The stock had a trading volume of 588,276 shares, compared to its average volume of 570,225. Blue Bird has a 12-month low of $17.59 and a 12-month high of $59.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.95. The company has a market cap of $1.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 1.63.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.42. Blue Bird had a net margin of 6.36% and a return on equity of 154.10%. The firm had revenue of $333.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $330.00 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Blue Bird will post 2.71 earnings per share for the current year.

About Blue Bird

Blue Bird Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, engineers, manufactures, and sells school buses in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Bus and Parts. It offers Type C, Type D, and specialty buses; and alternative power options through its propane powered, gasoline powered, compressed natural gas powered, and electric powered school buses, as well as diesel engines.