Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Why Blue Bird (BLBD) Outpaced the Stock Market Today

Read MoreHide Full Article

Blue Bird (BLBD - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $51.46, demonstrating a +2.18% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.54%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.81%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 2.27%.

Coming into today, shares of the school bus maker had lost 8.17% in the past month. In that same time, the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector lost 1.2%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.29%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Blue Bird in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.97, up 25.97% from the prior-year quarter. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $380 million, showing a 8.51% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

BLBD's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.04 per share and revenue of $1.45 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +16.76% and 0%, respectively.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Blue Bird. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Blue Bird presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Blue Bird has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.13 right now. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 12.11 for its industry.

Investors should also note that BLBD has a PEG ratio of 1.32 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As the market closed yesterday, the Automotive - Domestic industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.68.

The Automotive - Domestic industry is part of the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 163, placing it within the bottom 35% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Blue Bird Corporation (BLBD) - free report >>

Published in