Short Interest in bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) Declines By 26.8%

bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,990,000 shares, a drop of 26.8% from the February 13th total of 2,720,000 shares. Currently, 20.6% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 474,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On bluebird bio

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BLUE. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new position in bluebird bio during the third quarter worth about $42,000. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its stake in shares of bluebird bio by 48.2% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 237,648 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 77,293 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in bluebird bio by 273.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 252,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $130,000 after purchasing an additional 184,605 shares during the last quarter. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. acquired a new position in bluebird bio in the fourth quarter valued at $175,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of bluebird bio by 2,270.2% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 371,224 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $193,000 after acquiring an additional 355,562 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BLUE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of bluebird bio from $2.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of bluebird bio from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on bluebird bio in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock. Baird R W cut bluebird bio from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on bluebird bio from $40.00 to $5.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, bluebird bio presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.10.

bluebird bio Stock Performance

BLUE stock traded up $0.02 during trading on Friday, reaching $3.75. The company had a trading volume of 130,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 349,141. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.51. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $6.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.27. bluebird bio has a twelve month low of $3.56 and a twelve month high of $30.90. The company has a market cap of $36.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.10 and a beta of 0.76.

About bluebird bio

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.