bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) Lowered to Neutral Rating by Bank of America

Bank of America downgraded shares of bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $0.50 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $3.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on bluebird bio from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on bluebird bio from $3.00 to $2.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $4.00 price target on shares of bluebird bio in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Barclays reduced their price target on bluebird bio from $8.00 to $4.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered bluebird bio from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, bluebird bio presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $3.03.

bluebird bio Trading Down 11.5 %

BLUE traded down $0.04 during trading on Friday, reaching $0.32. The company had a trading volume of 9,162,727 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,439,042. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $0.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $0.78. The company has a market cap of $62.21 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.14 and a beta of 0.76. bluebird bio has a 12-month low of $0.32 and a 12-month high of $5.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.68.

bluebird bio (NASDAQ:BLUE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, September 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter. bluebird bio had a negative return on equity of 207.25% and a negative net margin of 567.29%. The business had revenue of $18.57 million for the quarter. Equities research analysts anticipate that bluebird bio will post -1.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On bluebird bio

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in bluebird bio by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,498,460 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $13,438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,081 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in bluebird bio by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,683,042 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,433,000 after buying an additional 166,771 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in bluebird bio by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,841,923 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,996,000 after buying an additional 43,382 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in bluebird bio by 8.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,481,965 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,289,000 after buying an additional 186,903 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in bluebird bio by 315.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,334,519 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,223,000 after buying an additional 1,013,144 shares during the period. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.