Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.03, Zacks reports. Blue Bird had a net margin of 7.83% and a return on equity of 91.12%.

Blue Bird Stock Performance

BLBD stock traded down $0.43 on Wednesday, reaching $35.73. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,260,130 shares, compared to its average volume of 736,716. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 0.83. Blue Bird has a 52 week low of $29.00 and a 52 week high of $59.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $40.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $44.12. The company has a market capitalization of $1.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 1.56.

Insider Activity

In other Blue Bird news, CFO Razvan Radulescu sold 19,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.89, for a total transaction of $822,244.19. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 89,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,832,092.83. The trade was a 17.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BLBD. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Blue Bird from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 24th. Craig Hallum lifted their price objective on Blue Bird from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. BTIG Research assumed coverage on shares of Blue Bird in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Bank of America lowered their price target on Blue Bird from $66.00 to $63.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $66.00 target price on shares of Blue Bird in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.64.

Blue Bird Company Profile

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.