Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Shares of Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $56.79.

A number of research analysts have weighed in on BLBD shares. Needham & Company LLC reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $49.00 target price on shares of Blue Bird in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Blue Bird from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Blue Bird from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on Blue Bird from $67.00 to $61.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blue Bird news, Director Phil Horlock sold 13,289 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.70, for a total transaction of $554,151.30. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 270,766 shares in the company, valued at $11,290,942.20. This represents a 4.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BLBD. Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blue Bird during the fourth quarter worth $354,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Blue Bird by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,426,912 shares of the company's stock worth $93,752,000 after acquiring an additional 25,745 shares during the period. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Blue Bird by 36.5% during the first quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 81,379 shares of the company's stock worth $2,634,000 after acquiring an additional 21,769 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Blue Bird by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,335,122 shares of the company's stock worth $51,576,000 after acquiring an additional 160,248 shares during the period. Finally, Ruffer LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Blue Bird during the fourth quarter worth $2,790,000. 93.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Blue Bird Trading Up 1.9%

BLBD opened at $41.57 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $37.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.50. Blue Bird has a 1-year low of $30.04 and a 1-year high of $57.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.40.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.01. Blue Bird had a net margin of 8.05% and a return on equity of 75.22%. The business had revenue of $358.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $348.23 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. The business's revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Blue Bird will post 3.86 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.

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