Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) Stock Rating Lowered by Roth Capital

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) was downgraded by research analysts at Roth Capital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on BLBD. StockNews.com raised shares of Blue Bird from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $72.00 price target on shares of Blue Bird in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Blue Bird from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Blue Bird from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm cut shares of Blue Bird from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $48.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.00.

Blue Bird Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ BLBD opened at $42.94 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company has a market capitalization of $1.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.61. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $47.09. Blue Bird has a one year low of $17.59 and a one year high of $59.40.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $333.37 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $330.00 million. Blue Bird had a net margin of 7.65% and a return on equity of 116.23%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Blue Bird will post 3.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Blue Bird news, President Britton Smith sold 2,508 shares of Blue Bird stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.81, for a total transaction of $124,923.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 80,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,015,532.77. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Blue Bird news, President Britton Smith sold 2,508 shares of Blue Bird stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.81, for a total transaction of $124,923.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 80,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,015,532.77. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Phil Horlock sold 32,159 shares of Blue Bird stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.93, for a total transaction of $1,573,539.87. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 299,812 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,669,801.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,240 shares of company stock worth $2,725,146 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Blue Bird

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 43.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 11,473 shares of the company’s stock valued at $618,000 after purchasing an additional 382 shares in the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Blue Bird during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 22.5% during the 2nd quarter. GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC now owns 3,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Blue Bird during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 93.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.