Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 6,844 Shares of Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD)

Victory Capital Management Inc. cut its stake in Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) by 13.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,372 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,844 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Blue Bird were worth $1,753,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its position in Blue Bird by 268.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,841,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,330,000 after purchasing an additional 1,341,259 shares during the period. Castellan Group purchased a new position in shares of Blue Bird in the 4th quarter worth $7,748,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 26.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 752,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,084,000 after acquiring an additional 156,298 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its position in Blue Bird by 976.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 128,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,171,000 after acquiring an additional 116,707 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in Blue Bird by 169.7% in the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 141,553 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,568,000 after acquiring an additional 89,068 shares during the period. 93.59% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on BLBD. Bank of America cut their price target on Blue Bird from $66.00 to $63.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Blue Bird from $66.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Craig Hallum increased their price target on shares of Blue Bird from $68.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Blue Bird from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Blue Bird presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.21.

Blue Bird Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of BLBD stock opened at $34.88 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.73. Blue Bird Co. has a one year low of $30.67 and a one year high of $59.40. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $36.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.27. The company has a market capitalization of $1.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.80, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.58.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.03. Blue Bird had a return on equity of 75.22% and a net margin of 8.05%. Sell-side analysts expect that Blue Bird Co. will post 3.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Blue Bird

In other news, CFO Razvan Radulescu sold 2,848 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $38.12, for a total transaction of $108,565.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 88,664 shares in the company, valued at $3,379,871.68. This trade represents a 3.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

About Blue Bird

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.