Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD – Get Rating) in a research note released on Thursday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Blue Bird from $14.50 to $17.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Craig Hallum lifted their price objective on shares of Blue Bird from $16.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th.

Blue Bird Price Performance

BLBD opened at $19.34 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 109.96, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.16. Blue Bird has a 1 year low of $7.14 and a 1 year high of $23.13. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.84.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 8th. The company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $235.73 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $200.00 million. Blue Bird had a negative net margin of 5.84% and a negative return on equity of 442.21%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blue Bird will post 0.4 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Phil Horlock sold 14,749 shares of Blue Bird stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.00, for a total value of $324,478.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 409,854 shares in the company, valued at $9,016,788. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 17.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Blue Bird

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Blue Bird by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,691,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,115,000 after buying an additional 9,996 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blue Bird in the fourth quarter worth $99,000. Jane Street Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blue Bird in the fourth quarter worth $355,000. State of Wisconsin Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Blue Bird by 65.2% in the fourth quarter. State of Wisconsin Investment Board now owns 40,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $429,000 after buying an additional 15,831 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Blue Bird by 705.6% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 246,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,636,000 after buying an additional 215,582 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.43% of the company’s stock.

About Blue Bird

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Blue Bird Corp. engages in the design and manufacture of school buses. It operates through the Bus and Parts business segments. The Bus segment includes the manufacturing and assembly of school buses to be sold to a variety of customers across the United States, Canada, and in international markets. The Parts segment provides routine maintenance, replacement of parts that are damaged in service, and replacement of parts that suffer from wear and tear.