bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) Short Interest Down 6.6% in December

bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,410,000 shares, a drop of 6.6% from the December 15th total of 2,580,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 405,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days. Currently, 25.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On bluebird bio

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in bluebird bio by 315.3% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,334,519 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,223,000 after acquiring an additional 1,013,144 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in bluebird bio by 2,270.2% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 371,224 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $193,000 after acquiring an additional 355,562 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of bluebird bio by 8.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,481,965 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,289,000 after buying an additional 186,903 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of bluebird bio by 273.7% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 252,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $130,000 after buying an additional 184,605 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of bluebird bio by 3.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,683,042 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,433,000 after buying an additional 166,771 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut bluebird bio from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of bluebird bio in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Bank of America lowered bluebird bio from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $60.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on bluebird bio from $60.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on bluebird bio from $2.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.14.

bluebird bio Price Performance

Shares of BLUE opened at $8.35 on Monday. bluebird bio has a 1 year low of $5.80 and a 1 year high of $38.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $81.16 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.22 and a beta of 0.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $8.12 and a 200-day moving average of $12.14.

bluebird bio Company Profile

bluebird bio, Inc, a biotechnology company, researches, develops, and commercializes gene therapies for severe genetic diseases. Its product candidates for severe genetic diseases include ZYNTEGLO (betibeglogene autotemcel) for the treatment of transfusion-dependent ß-thalassemia; lovotibeglogene autotemcel for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD); and SKYSONA (elivaldogene autotemcel) to treat cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy.