Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) Holdings Lifted by Gotham Asset Management LLC

Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD - Free Report) by 58.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,913 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 22,574 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC owned about 0.19% of Blue Bird worth $2,353,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Blue Bird by 976.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 128,658 shares of the company's stock valued at $6,171,000 after purchasing an additional 116,707 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Blue Bird by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 60,329 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,712,000 after buying an additional 6,940 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Blue Bird by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 263,400 shares of the company's stock valued at $10,175,000 after buying an additional 16,900 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its stake in Blue Bird by 29.6% during the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 34,050 shares of the company's stock worth $1,315,000 after acquiring an additional 7,772 shares during the period. Finally, Perpetual Ltd bought a new position in Blue Bird in the fourth quarter worth about $262,000. 93.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Blue Bird from $66.00 to $49.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com downgraded Blue Bird from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Barclays dropped their target price on Blue Bird from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price target on shares of Blue Bird from $67.00 to $61.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $56.79.

Blue Bird Stock Performance

BLBD traded down $0.73 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $40.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 51,711 shares, compared to its average volume of 642,249. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Blue Bird Co. has a fifty-two week low of $30.04 and a fifty-two week high of $59.40. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a PE ratio of 12.40, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.43.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $348.23 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.89 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Blue Bird Co. will post 3.86 EPS for the current year.

Blue Bird 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.