Royce & Associates LP Has $8.41 Million Position in Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN)

Royce & Associates LP boosted its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) by 17.0% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 508,688 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 74,079 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Bloomin’ Brands were worth $8,409,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 200,446 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $5,749,000 after purchasing an additional 12,192 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 267,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $7,667,000 after purchasing an additional 9,658 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 17,657 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $506,000 after purchasing an additional 1,216 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 46,490 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $1,343,000 after purchasing an additional 3,634 shares during the period. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 29.7% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 17,036 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $489,000 after purchasing an additional 3,903 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BLMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Bloomin’ Brands from $19.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Bloomin’ Brands from $22.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Raymond James downgraded Bloomin’ Brands from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price target on Bloomin’ Brands from $27.00 to $20.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on Bloomin’ Brands from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.70.

Bloomin’ Brands Stock Performance

Shares of BLMN opened at $13.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.46, a quick ratio of 0.26 and a current ratio of 0.31. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $16.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -120.00 and a beta of 2.04. Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $13.07 and a 52 week high of $30.13.

Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ:BLMN) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The restaurant operator reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Bloomin’ Brands had a positive return on equity of 62.18% and a negative net margin of 0.12%. Bloomin’ Brands’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bloomin’ Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. Bloomin’ Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently -872.73%.

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.