Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) was downgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, Zacks.com reports.
According to Zacks, "Blue Bird Corp. is engaged in the designing, engineering, manufacturing and sale of school buses and related parts. It also offers alternative fuel applications with its propane-powered and compressed natural gas-powered school buses. Blue Bird Corp. is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "
Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. BidaskClub upgraded Blue Bird from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Blue Bird from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Roth Capital reiterated a "neutral" rating and issued a $12.00 price objective on shares of Blue Bird in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Craig Hallum dropped their target price on Blue Bird from $27.00 to $22.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $18.67.
BLBD traded down $0.79 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $13.50. The company had a trading volume of 97,015 shares, compared to its average volume of 141,688. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $14.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.02. The company has a market cap of $386.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.36 and a beta of 1.44. Blue Bird has a 12-month low of $8.40 and a 12-month high of $23.99.
Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.14). The business had revenue of $255.41 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $205.00 million. Blue Bird had a negative return on equity of 61.92% and a net margin of 2.37%. Analysts anticipate that Blue Bird will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
In related news, General Counsel Paul Yousif sold 10,000 shares of Blue Bird stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.66, for a total transaction of $146,600.00. Company insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 27,911 shares of the company's stock valued at $640,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Blue Bird by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 287,904 shares of the company's stock worth $6,599,000 after purchasing an additional 25,650 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Blue Bird by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 39,003 shares of the company's stock worth $894,000 after acquiring an additional 1,421 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 42.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,886 shares of the company's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 558 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its position in Blue Bird by 503.1% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 45,949 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,053,000 after acquiring an additional 38,330 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.39% of the company's stock.
About Blue Bird
Blue Bird Corporation designs, engineers, manufactures, and sells school buses and related parts in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Bus and Parts. The company offers Type C, Type D, and specialty buses; and alternative fuel applications through its propane-powered, gasoline-powered, compressed natural gas-powered, and electric powered school buses.
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5 Travel Company Stocks Likely to Suffer From the Coronavirus
How important is the global travel and tourism industry? It’s a sector that accounts for about 10% of the world’s adult workforce. That’s 350 million people. The industry also accounts for at least 4% of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
In short, it’s an industry that accounts for trillions of dollars for the economy. And it relies on the most visible workers like pilots and cruise ship captains to the kitchen and housecleaning staff and servers. The travel industry is in many ways a service industry. But when there’s nobody to service, these businesses take a tumble.
And tumble it has. The world is going through a period of enforced social distancing. Many countries are taking even more extreme measures to lock down parts, or all, of their countries in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus and to flatten the curve to prevent healthcare workers and hospitals from being overwhelmed.
But that means fewer people are flying. Planned vacations are being canceled. And all of this is bad news for a sector that relies on the mobility of global travelers.
To be fair, the best of these companies should recover just fine. However, some of these companies had fundamental concerns that will be magnified by the loss of revenue.
View the "5 Travel Company Stocks Likely to Suffer From the Coronavirus".
