bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) Short Interest Down 6.6% in December

bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,410,000 shares, a decline of 6.6% from the December 15th total of 2,580,000 shares. Currently, 25.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 405,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on BLUE. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of bluebird bio in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays increased their price objective on bluebird bio from $2.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 31st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on bluebird bio from $60.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut bluebird bio from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on bluebird bio in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.14.

bluebird bio Trading Up 1.1 %

BLUE opened at $8.35 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $81.16 million, a PE ratio of -0.22 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The business has a 50 day moving average of $8.12 and a 200-day moving average of $12.14. bluebird bio has a 52 week low of $5.80 and a 52 week high of $38.40.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of bluebird bio by 273.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 252,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $130,000 after purchasing an additional 184,605 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in bluebird bio by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,683,042 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,433,000 after buying an additional 166,771 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in bluebird bio by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,841,923 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,996,000 after buying an additional 43,382 shares in the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC bought a new position in bluebird bio during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in bluebird bio by 48.2% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 237,648 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 77,293 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

About bluebird bio

bluebird bio, Inc, a biotechnology company, researches, develops, and commercializes gene therapies for severe genetic diseases. Its product candidates for severe genetic diseases include ZYNTEGLO (betibeglogene autotemcel) for the treatment of transfusion-dependent ß-thalassemia; lovotibeglogene autotemcel for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD); and SKYSONA (elivaldogene autotemcel) to treat cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy.