AtonRa Partners Trims Stock Holdings in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

AtonRa Partners reduced its stake in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,856 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 579 shares during the period. AtonRa Partners’ holdings in Bruker were worth $430,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Bruker by 68.2% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 360 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Bruker in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in Bruker by 145.0% in the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 512 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in Bruker by 53.3% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 541 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the period. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc purchased a new position in shares of Bruker in the fourth quarter valued at about $44,000. 79.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bruker Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ BRKR traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $81.26. 982,737 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 805,779. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Bruker Co. has a 1 year low of $53.79 and a 1 year high of $94.86. The company’s 50-day moving average is $88.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $74.90. The company has a market capitalization of $11.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.17.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $844.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $809.35 million. Bruker had a return on equity of 29.94% and a net margin of 14.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Bruker’s payout ratio is 6.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on BRKR. UBS Group increased their target price on Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Bruker from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Bruker from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $60.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bruker currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bruker

In related news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of Bruker stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.06, for a total transaction of $1,350,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 23,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,084,618.82. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Bruker Company Profile

Bruker Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and distributes scientific instruments, and analytical and diagnostic solutions in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates through four segments: Bruker Scientific Instruments (BSI) BioSpin, BSI CALID, BSI Nano, and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies.