AtonRa Partners Has $430,000 Stock Position in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

AtonRa Partners lessened its holdings in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 9.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm 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 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BRKR. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Bruker by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,840,735 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $488,478,000 after buying an additional 594,362 shares during the period. RTW Investments LP lifted its stake in shares of Bruker by 14.3% in the third quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,381,703 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $210,680,000 after acquiring an additional 422,100 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Bruker by 3.0% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,950,145 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $121,494,000 after acquiring an additional 56,869 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Bruker by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,102,095 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $68,661,000 after purchasing an additional 28,031 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bruker by 95.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 928,418 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $57,840,000 after purchasing an additional 452,780 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BRKR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Bruker from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded 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. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.86.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of Bruker stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.06, for a total transaction of $1,350,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 23,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,084,618.82. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Bruker Stock Performance

Shares of BRKR stock traded up $0.29 during trading on Monday, reaching $81.26. 982,737 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 805,779. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $88.07 and its 200 day moving average is $74.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. Bruker Co. has a 1 year low of $53.79 and a 1 year high of $94.86. 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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.05. Bruker had a return on equity of 29.94% and a net margin of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $844.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $809.35 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

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

Bruker 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.