Blue Bird Corporation (NASDAQ:BLBD) Receives $56.79 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Blue Bird Corporation (NASDAQ:BLBD - Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $56.79.

Several analysts have recently commented on BLBD shares. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Blue Bird from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $49.00 price objective on shares of Blue Bird in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Blue Bird from $67.00 to $61.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Blue Bird from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th.

Insider Transactions at Blue Bird

In other news, CFO Razvan Radulescu sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.19, for a total transaction of $451,900.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 58,203 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,630,193.57. This represents a 14.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Phil Horlock sold 13,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.70, for a total transaction of $554,151.30. Following the sale, the director directly owned 270,766 shares in the company, valued at $11,290,942.20. This represents a 4.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,149 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,666 in the last three months. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blue Bird

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Blue Bird by 1,879.3% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 196,739 shares of the company's stock worth $6,479,000 after acquiring an additional 186,799 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd grew its position in shares of Blue Bird by 96.0% during the first quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 13,303 shares of the company's stock worth $431,000 after acquiring an additional 6,517 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC grew 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 last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Blue Bird by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,335,122 shares of the company's stock valued at $51,576,000 after buying an additional 160,248 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.59% of the company's stock.

Blue Bird Stock Performance

NASDAQ:BLBD traded down $0.24 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $43.05. 209,531 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 613,825. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.34, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 1.41. Blue Bird has a 52-week low of $30.04 and a 52-week high of $55.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company's 50 day moving average price is $41.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.89.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $358.85 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $348.23 million. Blue Bird had a net margin of 7.97% and a return on equity of 64.83%. Blue Bird's revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.89 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Blue Bird will post 3.86 earnings per share for the current year.

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.