Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Increases Stock Position in Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its holdings in shares of Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) by 21.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 41,230 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,180 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Blue Bird were worth $1,335,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ieq Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Blue Bird during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $354,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Blue Bird by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,426,912 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,752,000 after buying an additional 25,745 shares in the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Blue Bird by 36.5% during the 1st quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 81,379 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,634,000 after buying an additional 21,769 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Blue Bird by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,335,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,576,000 after acquiring an additional 160,248 shares during the period. Finally, Ruffer LLP bought a new stake in Blue Bird during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,790,000. 93.59% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BLBD has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Blue Bird from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 13th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of Blue Bird from $67.00 to $61.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $49.00 price target on shares of Blue Bird in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Blue Bird from $54.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.79.

Blue Bird Trading Up 1.7%

Blue Bird stock opened at $41.57 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Blue Bird Co. has a 12 month low of $30.04 and a 12 month high of $59.40. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.53. The firm has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a PE ratio of 12.87, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.40.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $358.85 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $348.23 million. Blue Bird had a return on equity of 75.22% and a net margin of 8.05%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Blue Bird Co. will post 3.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Blue Bird 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.