Short Interest in Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) Declines By 46.3%

Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,540,000 shares, a decline of 46.3% from the February 29th total of 8,460,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,290,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days. Approximately 5.3% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BLMN. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Bloomin’ Brands from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $26.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bloomin’ Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.90.

Bloomin’ Brands Stock Performance

BLMN traded up $0.04 during trading on Thursday, hitting $28.68. The stock had a trading volume of 1,015,492 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,302,064. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a current ratio of 0.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.32 and a beta of 1.99. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $27.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.69. Bloomin’ Brands has a twelve month low of $22.03 and a twelve month high of $30.13.

Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ:BLMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $0.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. Bloomin’ Brands had a net margin of 5.30% and a return on equity of 73.67%. Bloomin’ Brands’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.68 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Bloomin’ Brands will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bloomin’ Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.35%. Bloomin’ Brands’s payout ratio is currently 37.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bloomin’ Brands

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 13.0% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,152,121 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $332,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,747,152 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,527,385 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $308,048,000 after purchasing an additional 175,493 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 171.3% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 5,626,195 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $123,439,000 after purchasing an additional 3,552,591 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,228,458 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $59,178,000 after purchasing an additional 136,714 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,642,016 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $67,768,000 after buying an additional 196,152 shares in the last quarter.

About Bloomin’ Brands

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.