Covea Finance Buys Shares of 22,700 Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Covea Finance purchased a new position in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 22,700 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,568,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BRKR. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,788,763 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $168,036,000 after purchasing an additional 123,984 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bruker in the 4th quarter worth about $5,593,000. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE lifted its stake in shares of Bruker by 21.8% in the 1st quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 162,191 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $15,236,000 after purchasing an additional 29,029 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new position in shares of Bruker in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,142,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Bruker during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,472,000. 79.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Bruker from $74.00 to $72.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Bruker from $72.00 to $60.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Bruker from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Citigroup cut their price target on Bruker from $95.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Bruker in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $78.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $81.40.

Bruker Stock Performance

BRKR stock traded up $0.81 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $64.54. The company had a trading volume of 1,334,767 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,032,370. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. Bruker Co. has a one year low of $53.79 and a one year high of $94.86.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The medical research company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.52. The firm had revenue of $800.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $799.44 million. Bruker had a net margin of 11.29% and a return on equity of 24.92%. Bruker’s quarterly revenue was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.50 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Bruker Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 2nd were given a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.30%.

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.