Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) Stock Price Down 6.1%

Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD)’s share price traded down 6.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $46.01 and last traded at $47.90. 189,667 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 558,956 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.03.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BLBD has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $72.00 price objective on shares of Blue Bird in a research note on Tuesday, September 10th. StockNews.com cut Blue Bird from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America upped their price target on Blue Bird from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays raised their price objective on Blue Bird from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their target price on Blue Bird from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $61.17.

Blue Bird Trading Down 5.1 %

The business has a 50-day moving average of $49.52 and a 200-day moving average of $46.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market cap of $1.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.62, a PEG ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.61.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.42. The company 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 last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blue Bird Co. will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Britton Smith sold 2,508 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.81, for a total transaction of $124,923.48. Following the transaction, the president now owns 80,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,015,532.77. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, President Britton Smith sold 2,508 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.81, for a total transaction of $124,923.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 80,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,015,532.77. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Razvan Radulescu sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.08, for a total value of $235,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 88,926 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,186,636.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 61,240 shares of company stock valued at $2,960,546 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blue Bird

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sei Investments Co. bought a new stake in shares of Blue Bird during the 1st quarter worth about $2,134,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Blue Bird by 104.8% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 49,057 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,881,000 after purchasing an additional 25,102 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Blue Bird by 33.4% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 63,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,435,000 after purchasing an additional 15,900 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Blue Bird by 36.0% during 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 period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Blue Bird by 2,177.4% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 55,342 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,122,000 after purchasing an additional 52,912 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.59% of the company’s stock.

Blue Bird Company Profile

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.