bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) Short Interest Down 71.5% in April

bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 507,400 shares, a decrease of 71.5% from the March 31st total of 1,780,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 410,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.2 days. Currently, 5.2% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Institutional Trading of bluebird bio

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. bought a new stake in bluebird bio during the fourth quarter worth approximately $175,000. Barclays PLC raised 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 worth $130,000 after buying an additional 184,605 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of bluebird bio by 3.7% in the third 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 during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in bluebird bio by 1.1% during the third 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. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on BLUE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded bluebird bio from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Barclays lowered their price objective on bluebird bio from $40.00 to $8.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. StockNews.com initiated coverage on bluebird bio in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of bluebird bio from $40.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Baird R W lowered shares of bluebird bio from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.60.

bluebird bio Stock Performance

BLUE stock opened at $4.19 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.84. The company has a market capitalization of $41.02 million, a P/E ratio of -0.11 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. bluebird bio has a fifty-two week low of $3.56 and a fifty-two week high of $28.60.

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.