Private Trust Co. NA Trims Position in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Private Trust Co. NA decreased its position in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 24.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 654 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 213 shares during the quarter. Private Trust Co. NA’s holdings in Bruker were worth $48,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BRKR. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Bruker by 55.7% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 138,302 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $8,616,000 after purchasing an additional 49,487 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Bruker by 3.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,950,145 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $121,494,000 after purchasing an additional 56,869 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Bruker by 95.2% during the third 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 last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in Bruker by 28.6% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 33,441 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,083,000 after purchasing an additional 7,443 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RTW Investments LP increased its position in Bruker by 14.3% during the third quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,381,703 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $210,680,000 after purchasing an additional 422,100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bruker

In other Bruker news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 23,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,084,618.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 28.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Bruker Price Performance

BRKR opened at $90.28 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.11. The firm has a market cap of $12.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.17. Bruker Co. has a twelve month low of $53.79 and a twelve month high of $94.86. 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 (NASDAQ:BRKR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.05. Bruker had a net margin of 14.41% and a return on equity of 29.94%. The business had revenue of $844.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $809.35 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. The business’s 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 fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The business 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. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.85%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on BRKR shares. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Bruker in a research report on Tuesday, December 19th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $72.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Bruker from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.86.

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.