Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Sells 3,709 Shares of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its holdings in Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) by 7.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 45,605 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after selling 3,709 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.05% of Bloomin’ Brands worth $1,308,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of BLMN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 1.4% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Ziegler Capital Management LLC now owns 29,531 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $831,000 after acquiring an additional 1,465 shares in the last quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 53,635 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,510,000 after acquiring an additional 3,852 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 39,926 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $1,124,000 after acquiring an additional 869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kendall Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 53.0% during the 4th quarter. Kendall Capital Management now owns 35,250 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $992,000 after acquiring an additional 12,210 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on BLMN shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $29.00 to $27.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Barclays dropped 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 dropped their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $30.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.30.

Bloomin’ Brands Stock Up 0.4 %

BLMN stock opened at $18.00 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.80. The company has a market capitalization of $1.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.00 and a beta of 2.04. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.20 and a 12 month high of $30.13.

Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ:BLMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The restaurant operator reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by ($0.05). Bloomin’ Brands had a return on equity of 65.73% and a net margin of 1.56%. The firm had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Bloomin’ Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors 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 5.33%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 17th. Bloomin’ Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 150.00%.

Bloomin’ Brands 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.