Millennium Management LLC Has $20.44 Million Stock Position in Blue Bird Corporation $BLBD

Key Points

• Millennium Management LLC reduced its stake in Blue Bird Corporation by 18.4%, holding 631,375 shares valued at approximately $20.44 million after selling 142,800 shares in the first quarter.
• Analysts have upgraded Blue Bird's stock rating to strong-buy from "hold," with a new price target of $53, reflecting strong confidence in the company's growth prospects.
• Blue Bird reported a strong quarterly earnings performance, with EPS of $1.19 beating estimates, and a year-over-year revenue increase of 19.4%.

Millennium Management LLC trimmed its stake in Blue Bird Corporation (NASDAQ:BLBD - Free Report) by 18.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 631,375 shares of the company's stock after selling 142,800 shares during the quarter. Millennium Management LLC owned approximately 1.97% of Blue Bird worth $20,438,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Blue Bird by 4.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 19,094 shares of the company's stock valued at $618,000 after purchasing an additional 820 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in Blue Bird by 13.6% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 936,495 shares of the company's stock worth $30,314,000 after acquiring an additional 112,197 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Blue Bird by 13.2% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 270,789 shares of the company's stock worth $8,765,000 after acquiring an additional 31,618 shares during the last quarter. 4D Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Blue Bird during the first quarter worth about $1,780,000. Finally, PDT Partners LLC increased its stake in Blue Bird by 69.8% during the first quarter. PDT Partners LLC now owns 101,488 shares of the company's stock worth $3,285,000 after acquiring an additional 41,704 shares during the last quarter. 93.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BLBD. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Blue Bird from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Zacks Research raised Blue Bird from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Blue Bird from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blue Bird currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $57.36.

Insider Transactions at Blue Bird

In other news, SVP Ted Scartz sold 8,877 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.22, for a total value of $490,187.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 48,769 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,693,024.18. This trade represents a 15.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Phil Horlock sold 13,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.02, for a total value of $767,260.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 240,766 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,210,009.32. This trade represents a 5.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 137,392 shares of company stock valued at $7,794,083 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Blue Bird Price Performance

NASDAQ BLBD traded down $1.72 on Monday, reaching $56.24. 509,099 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 557,830. The company has a market cap of $1.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $51.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.31. Blue Bird Corporation has a 12 month low of $30.04 and a 12 month high of $60.45.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $398.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $377.64 million. Blue Bird had a return on equity of 61.66% and a net margin of 8.16%.The company's revenue was up 19.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Blue Bird Corporation 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.