Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) Receives $61.00 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $61.00.

Several research analysts recently commented on BLBD shares. BTIG Research started coverage on Blue Bird in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Roth Capital downgraded Blue Bird from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Blue Bird from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on Blue Bird from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm downgraded Blue Bird from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $48.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling at Blue Bird

In other Blue Bird news, SVP Ted Scartz sold 2,985 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.60, for a total value of $145,071.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,863 shares in the company, valued at $2,520,541.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Ted Scartz sold 2,985 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.60, for a total transaction of $145,071.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,520,541.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Britton Smith sold 2,508 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total value of $120,384.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 83,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,990,000. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 56,240 shares of company stock worth $2,725,146 in the last three months. 2.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blue Bird

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Macroview Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Blue Bird during the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. Covestor Ltd acquired a new position in Blue Bird during the 1st quarter worth about $29,000. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in Blue Bird during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,000. Quarry LP lifted its stake in Blue Bird by 43.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Blue Bird during the 2nd quarter worth about $81,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.59% of the company’s stock.

Blue Bird Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of BLBD stock opened at $45.68 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.49, a PEG ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 1.60. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.56. Blue Bird has a 1-year low of $17.59 and a 1-year high of $59.40.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $333.37 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $330.00 million. Blue Bird had a return on equity of 116.23% and a net margin of 7.65%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Blue Bird will post 3.22 EPS for the current fiscal 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.