Short Interest in bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) Decreases By 8.5%

bluebird bio, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLUE) saw a significant decrease in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 43,640,000 shares, a decrease of 8.5% from the October 31st total of 47,710,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 6,510,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.7 days.

Institutional Trading of bluebird bio

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,723,081 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of 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 last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of 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 last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BLUE. StockNews.com began coverage on bluebird bio in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. Robert W. Baird dropped 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 reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective on shares of bluebird bio in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of bluebird bio in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded bluebird bio from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Three research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $3.03.

bluebird bio Price Performance

BLUE traded up $0.03 during trading on Monday, reaching $0.41. The stock had a trading volume of 4,709,155 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,365,005. The business has a 50-day moving average of $0.45 and a 200-day moving average of $0.74. bluebird bio has a one year low of $0.29 and a one year high of $5.53. The stock has a market cap of $79.72 million, a PE ratio of -0.22 and a beta of 0.76. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, September 13th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.36) earnings per share (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, equities research analysts anticipate that bluebird bio will post -1.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.