BLD - Blue Bird rallies to 52-week high after deliveries and order backlog impresses

2023-05-12 12:34:49 ET

Blue Bird Corporation ( NASDAQ: BLBD ) soared 34.32% in early afternoon trading on Friday and carved out a new 52-week high of $27.75 earlier in the session.

The company's earnings report featured 44.4% revenue growth on electric school bus bookings that were 176% higher year-over-year. The order backlog was reported to be almost 5.8K units. Blue Bird ( BLBD ) reconfirmed its long-term outlook of profitable growth towards $2B in revenues and adjusted EBITDA margins of 12%.

Crucially, Blue Bird ( BLBD ) noted that it has seen steady growth in electric school bus orders from the EPA’s 2022 Clean School Bus Rebate Program, which was awarded nearly $1B in funding.

"This funding alone will generate orders for an estimated 500-700 Blue Bird electric buses translating into a minimum of $200 million of additional revenue. Plus we are excited to see progress with the announcement of Phase 2 of the program, offering a $400M competitive grant program for electric school buses."

Roth MKM kept a Buy rating in place on Blue Bird ( BLBD ) following the report. Analyst Craig Irwin said BLBD put through a fresh $2.5K per bus price increase for FY24 as it moved proactively on recent commodity volatility. Irwin said the firm would be buyers on the EV stock for accelerating deliveries benefiting from the vouchers from the EPA's 2023 Phase 1 awards.

More on Blue Bird:

• Blue Bird earnings call presentation
• More articles from Seeking Alpha analysts
• Growth metrics on Blue Bird
• Seeking Alpha's Quant Rating for Blue Bird

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