19,600 Shares in Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) Bought by Natixis

Natixis bought a new position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 19,600 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock, valued at approximately $562,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Bloomin’ Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $8,313,000. Heartland Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Bloomin’ Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $7,452,000. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in Bloomin’ Brands by 1,763.3% in the fourth quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 218,496 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,151,000 after purchasing an additional 206,770 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Bloomin’ Brands by 1.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,527,385 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $308,048,000 after purchasing an additional 175,493 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners increased its stake in Bloomin’ Brands by 27.8% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 768,963 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $21,464,000 after purchasing an additional 167,441 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on BLMN shares. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $29.00 to $27.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $30.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $26.00 to $22.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bloomin’ Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.56.

Bloomin’ Brands Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of BLMN stock traded up $0.24 on Friday, hitting $19.73. 123,162 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,451,068. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.33. Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $16.20 and a one year high of $30.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.45 and a beta of 2.04.

Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ:BLMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The restaurant operator reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.20 billion. Bloomin’ Brands had a return on equity of 65.73% and a net margin of 1.56%. Bloomin’ Brands’s revenue was down 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current year.

Bloomin’ Brands Company Profile

Bloomin' Brands, Inc, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates casual, upscale casual, and fine dining restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, U.S. and International. Its restaurant portfolio has four concepts, including Outback Steakhouse, a casual steakhouse restaurant; Carrabba's Italian Grill, a casual Italian restaurant; Bonefish Grill; and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, a contemporary steakhouse.