Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 7,365 Shares of Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLMN) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 257,680 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock after buying an additional 7,365 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned about 0.30% of Bloomin’ Brands worth $7,254,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Bloomin’ Brands by 683.2% in the third quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,261 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 1,100 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 23.5% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 4,026 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Bloomin’ Brands by 221.2% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,147 shares of the restaurant operator’s stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 2,856 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bloomin’ Brands in the third quarter worth $206,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BLMN. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Bloomin’ Brands from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Bloomin’ Brands from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Bloomin’ Brands from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bloomin’ Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $27.90.

Bloomin’ Brands Stock Performance

BLMN stock opened at $23.96 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.34, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.89. Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $22.03 and a 12-month high of $30.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a PE ratio of 9.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.85 and a beta of 2.02.

Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ:BLMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $0.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.06. Bloomin’ Brands had a return on equity of 73.67% and a net margin of 5.30%. The company had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.20 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.68 earnings per share. Bloomin’ Brands’s revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bloomin’ Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.01%. Bloomin’ Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.94%.

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.