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

Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) saw a large increase in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,070,000 shares, an increase of 19.1% from the May 31st total of 898,100 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 547,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.0 days.

Blue Bird Price Performance

Shares of Blue Bird stock traded down $2.38 during trading on Monday, hitting $51.47. The stock had a trading volume of 433,528 shares, compared to its average volume of 554,245. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market cap of $1.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.76, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 1.63. The business has a fifty day moving average of $49.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.46. Blue Bird has a fifty-two week low of $17.59 and a fifty-two week high of $59.40.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.52. Blue Bird had a return on equity of 154.10% and a net margin of 6.36%. The business had revenue of $345.92 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.00 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Blue Bird will post 2.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BLBD. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Blue Bird by 92.3% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 83,284 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,778,000 after purchasing an additional 39,976 shares during the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blue Bird during the 3rd quarter valued at about $420,000. Hodges Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blue Bird during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,661,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Blue Bird by 38.8% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 339,313 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,244,000 after purchasing an additional 94,770 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Blue Bird by 245.7% during the third quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 509,002 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,867,000 after purchasing an additional 361,763 shares during the last quarter. 93.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BLBD. Roth Mkm upped their target price on Blue Bird from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Blue Bird from $44.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. DA Davidson upped their price objective on Blue Bird from $44.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on Blue Bird from $54.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on Blue Bird from $35.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, Blue Bird has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $49.25.

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.