Wellington Management Group LLP Purchases 160,248 Shares of Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD)

Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Blue Bird Co. (NASDAQ:BLBD) by 13.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,335,122 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 160,248 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 4.16% of Blue Bird worth $51,576,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BLBD. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Blue Bird by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,426,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $93,752,000 after acquiring an additional 25,745 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Blue Bird by 26.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 752,228 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,084,000 after purchasing an additional 156,298 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Blue Bird by 8.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 725,573 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,798,000 after purchasing an additional 56,449 shares during the last quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in Blue Bird by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 641,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,772,000 after purchasing an additional 5,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its position in Blue Bird by 2.4% during the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 327,857 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,724,000 after purchasing an additional 7,770 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on BLBD shares. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on shares of Blue Bird from $66.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com raised Blue Bird from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Blue Bird currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.21.

Blue Bird Stock Performance

NASDAQ BLBD opened at $32.43 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.86. Blue Bird Co. has a 12-month low of $30.04 and a 12-month high of $59.40. The firm has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.04, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Blue Bird (NASDAQ:BLBD) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Blue Bird Co. will post 3.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Razvan Radulescu sold 2,848 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.12, for a total transaction of $108,565.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,664 shares in the company, valued at $3,379,871.68. This represents a 3.11 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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.