Blue Bird’s (BLBD) “Buy” Rating Reiterated at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) in a research report report published on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $72.00 target price on the stock.

BLBD has been the topic of a number of other reports. DA Davidson boosted their target price on Blue Bird from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Craig Hallum upped their price objective on Blue Bird from $54.00 to $65.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Blue Bird from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Bank of America upped their price target on Blue Bird from $60.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Blue Bird from $43.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Blue Bird currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $61.17.

Blue Bird Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BLBD opened at $49.34 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.98, a P/E/G ratio of 0.24 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $49.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.25. Blue Bird has a twelve month low of $17.59 and a twelve month high of $59.40.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Blue Bird

In other Blue Bird news, President Britton Smith sold 2,508 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total transaction of $120,384.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 83,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,990,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Blue Bird news, President Britton Smith sold 2,508 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.00, for a total transaction of $120,384.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 83,125 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,990,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Ted Scartz sold 2,985 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.60, for a total value of $145,071.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 51,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,520,541.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,732 shares of company stock worth $2,835,622 in the last 90 days. 2.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Blue Bird

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BLBD. Covestor Ltd acquired a new stake in Blue Bird in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Macroview Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Blue Bird in the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 43.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $63,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blue Bird in the 2nd quarter worth $81,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Blue Bird in the 4th quarter worth $89,000. Institutional investors own 93.59% of the company’s stock.

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.