Blue Bird Corp key statistics and ratios

In fiscal 2025, Blue Bird Corp had return on equity of 61.6%, an operating margin of 11.3%, debt equal to 35.7% of equity and a current ratio of 1.74. Each ratio below is calculated from the figures on its income statement, balance sheet and cash flow pages.

Financial ratios

US$ thousands unless shown otherwise. Fiscal years, plus the last twelve months (LTM) when newer.

Blue Bird Corp: financial ratios, annual
Fiscal year	2013Sept 2013	2014Sept 2014	2015Oct 2015	2016Oct 2016	2017Sept 2017	2018Sept 2018	2019Sept 2019	2020Oct 2020	2021Oct 2021	2022Sept 2022	2023Sept 2023	2024Sept 2024	2025Sept 2025	LTMJun 2026
Gross margin	11.9%	12.8%	13.1%	13.9%	12.9%	11.9%	13.1%	10.9%	10.5%	4.6%	12.3%	19.0%	20.5%	20.6%
Operating margin	3.5%	2.1%	3.9%	2.9%	6.0%	3.4%	4.3%	2.5%	1.0%	−5.1%	4.6%	10.3%	11.3%	11.8%
Net margin	7.0%	0.3%	1.6%	0.7%	2.9%	3.0%	2.4%	1.4%	−0.0%	−5.7%	2.1%	7.8%	8.6%	17.5%
Free-cash-flow margin	3.9%	3.7%	2.0%	1.7%	3.9%	1.6%	2.0%	−1.8%	−9.7%	−3.9%	9.8%	7.1%	10.4%	9.5%
Return on equity	68.3%	6.5%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	115.1%	105.8%	61.6%	61.9%
Return on assets	—	2.4%	7.8%	2.5%	10.0%	10.2%	7.2%	3.6%	−0.1%	−12.7%	6.1%	22.4%	22.2%	31.5%
Asset turnover	—	7.41	4.81	3.42	3.45	3.40	3.03	2.58	2.03	2.22	2.89	2.86	2.57	1.80
Current ratio	—	0.16	0.97	1.02	1.16	1.01	1.01	1.05	1.25	1.06	1.03	1.37	1.74	1.64
Debt to equity	0.0%	>999%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	>999%	329.5%	60.3%	35.7%	13.4%
Interest cover (operating income ÷ interest)	11.4x	2.9x	1.9x	1.6x	8.2x	5.3x	3.4x	1.8x	0.7x	n/m	2.9x	13.2x	23.2x	27.9x
Effective tax rate	—	87.4%	26.3%	59.1%	31.7%	−9.7%	25.6%	14.5%	—	—	34.7%	26.2%	25.9%	13.1%
R&D as % of revenue	0.5%	0.4%	0.6%	0.6%	0.7%	0.8%	1.1%	0.7%	0.8%	0.8%	0.6%	0.7%	1.0%	—
SG&A as % of revenue	8.4%	10.7%	9.2%	11.0%	6.8%	8.5%	8.8%	8.4%	9.6%	9.6%	7.7%	8.7%	9.2%	8.8%
Capital spending as % of revenue	0.6%	0.6%	0.6%	1.0%	0.9%	3.1%	3.5%	2.2%	1.8%	0.8%	0.8%	1.1%	1.5%	1.7%
Free cash flow ÷ net income	56.0%	>999%	121.7%	225.0%	133.3%	52.7%	83.1%	−127.3%	—	—	467.9%	90.8%	120.1%	54.3%
Dividends ÷ net income	0.0%	>999%	0.0%	0.0%	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Dividends and buybacks ÷ free cash flow	0.0%	724.5%	0.0%	0.0%	89.4%	163.8%	0.0%	—	—	—	0.3%	1.2%	6.4%	5.3%

US$ thousands unless shown otherwise. Fiscal quarters.

Blue Bird Corp: financial ratios, quarterly
Quarter	2024 Q4Sept 2024	2025 Q1Dec 2024	2025 Q2Mar 2025	2025 Q3Jun 2025	2025 Q4Sept 2025	2026 Q1Dec 2025	2026 Q2Mar 2026	2026 Q3Jun 2026
Gross margin	17.0%	19.2%	19.7%	21.6%	21.1%	21.4%	20.0%	20.0%
Operating margin	7.3%	10.5%	9.4%	12.6%	12.3%	11.3%	11.1%	12.1%
Net margin	7.0%	9.2%	7.3%	9.2%	8.9%	9.2%	8.3%	35.8%
Free-cash-flow margin	14.3%	7.0%	5.2%	13.1%	14.8%	9.3%	11.3%	4.2%
Current ratio	1.37	1.44	1.45	1.58	1.74	1.81	1.83	1.64
Debt to equity	59.5%	52.2%	48.7%	41.2%	35.4%	32.9%	29.5%	13.3%
SG&A as % of revenue	9.7%	8.7%	10.4%	9.0%	8.8%	10.1%	8.9%	7.9%

Returns use average equity or assets over the year. Return on equity is left blank when equity is negative or so small that the ratio says nothing (above ±200%); interest cover is left blank above 200 times. Price-based ratios such as P/E are on the valuation page.

Financial health

6 of 6 checks passed · June 27, 2026

What it owns · $1.2bn

Short-term assets $514mLonger-term assets $653m

What it owes, and who funded it · $968m

Short-term liabilities $313mShareholders' equity $655m

Short-term assets cover short-term liabilities $514m of assets due within a year against $313m of liabilities due within a year.
Short-term assets cover long-term liabilities Not assessable from the reported split. Not assessable.
More cash than debt $117m of cash against $87m of debt.
Debt below 40% of shareholders' equity Debt is 13% of equity.
Debt burden no higher than five years ago Debt to equity moved from 375% to 13% over five years.
A year's operating cash flow covers at least 20% of debt $180m of operating cash flow against $87m of debt.
Operating profit covers interest at least five times over Operating income of $190m against $7m of interest.

From Blue Bird Corp's latest balance sheet as filed. Checks are fixed, documented rules (methodology), counted only where the company reports the figures — a dot means the filing doesn't break the item out. Descriptions of reported data, not advice.

Moat

39 /100

Weak moat

How hard Blue Bird's competitive advantage looks for rivals to wear away, judged from 10 years of its own filings: returns on capital, pricing power, profit durability, cash conversion and discipline.

Returns on capital 15 / 20

Cash operating profit has been a median 11.6% of total assets over 10 years.
Pricing power 6 / 20

Gross margin has been a median 12.4%, moving by 4.4 percentage points (standard deviation) across 10 years.
Durability 0 / 20

Operating margin has been a median 4.3%; its worst year was -2.7%.
Cash conversion 8 / 20

Free cash flow was positive in 6 of 10 years, at a median 4.6% of revenue.
Discipline 10 / 20

The diluted share count rose 21.4% over five years; stock-based pay has been a median 0.4% of revenue.

AI disruption exposure: Low. In this industry, the business rests on physical assets, regulated networks or products AI itself depends on.

A rules-based reading of reported figures, not a forecast and not investment advice. How the score is built: methodology.

Compare with peers

Head to head: ASTE vs BLBD BLBD vs WNC BLBD vs TRN

More: Construction Machinery & Heavy Transportation Equipment stocks compared, Industrials sector, rankings of US companies

Figures from Blue Bird Corp's SEC filings (10-K and 10-Q), retrieved October 26, 2026. How we read and check them: methodology and data sources. Not investment advice. Back to Blue Bird Corp.