Short Interest in Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) Grows By 5.2%

Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,080,000 shares, a growth of 5.2% from the May 15th total of 5,780,000 shares. Approximately 7.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,400,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.3 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bloomin’ Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BLMN. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 364.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 494,338 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $12,156,000 after purchasing an additional 387,896 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Bloomin’ Brands during the 4th quarter worth $8,313,000. Heartland Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Bloomin’ Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $7,452,000. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 1,763.3% in the 4th quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 218,496 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $6,151,000 after buying an additional 206,770 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 1.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,527,385 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $308,048,000 after acquiring an additional 175,493 shares during the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BLMN. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Bloomin’ Brands from $29.00 to $27.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Bloomin’ Brands from $30.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Bloomin’ Brands from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bloomin’ Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.30.

Bloomin’ Brands Stock Down 3.0 %

Shares of BLMN opened at $19.04 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.75 and a beta of 2.01. Bloomin’ Brands has a one year low of $18.75 and a one year high of $30.13. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 0.33 and a quick ratio of 0.26.

Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ:BLMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The restaurant operator reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $1.20 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.20 billion. Bloomin’ Brands had a return on equity of 65.73% and a net margin of 1.56%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. Bloomin’ Brands’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Bloomin’ Brands will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bloomin’ Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.04%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. Bloomin’ Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 150.00%.

Bloomin’ Brands Company Profile

Bloomin' Brands, Inc, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates casual, upscale casual, and fine dining restaurants in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, U.S. and International. Its restaurant portfolio has four concepts, including Outback Steakhouse, a casual steakhouse restaurant; Carrabba's Italian Grill, a casual Italian restaurant; Bonefish Grill; and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, a contemporary steakhouse.