bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

StockNews.com started coverage on shares of bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) in a research note published on Tuesday morning. The brokerage issued a sell rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on bluebird bio from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $4.00 price target on shares of bluebird bio in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of bluebird bio in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of bluebird bio from $4.00 to $2.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of bluebird bio from $3.00 to $2.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.03.

bluebird bio Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BLUE opened at $0.38 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $73.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.20 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $0.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $0.75. bluebird bio has a fifty-two week low of $0.29 and a fifty-two week high of $5.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.51.

bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, September 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter. bluebird bio had a negative net margin of 565.74% and a negative return on equity of 322.46%. The company had revenue of $18.57 million for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that bluebird bio will post -1.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On bluebird bio

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Barclays PLC grew its position in bluebird bio by 273.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 252,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $130,000 after acquiring an additional 184,605 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of bluebird bio by 3.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 166,771 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of bluebird bio by 1.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,841,923 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,996,000 after purchasing an additional 43,382 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new position in bluebird bio in the 3rd quarter worth about $42,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in bluebird bio by 48.2% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 237,648 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 77,293 shares in the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

bluebird bio Company Profile

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.