New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 9,402 Shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its holdings in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 3.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 244,413 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 9,402 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Bruker were worth $17,959,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Bruker during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,384,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its position in Bruker by 62.5% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 315,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $23,161,000 after buying an additional 121,201 shares during the last quarter. 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 buying an additional 49,487 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 56,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Bruker by 95.2% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 928,418 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $57,840,000 after purchasing an additional 452,780 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Bruker Stock Performance

NASDAQ BRKR opened at $80.97 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.73, a PEG ratio of 2.05 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 stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $88.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $844.50 million during 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%. Bruker’s quarterly revenue was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bruker news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 23,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,084,618.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 28.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

About Bruker

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.