Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) Shares Sold by Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC cut its holdings in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 4.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,242 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,016 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Bruker were worth $2,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BRKR. State Street Corp grew its stake in Bruker by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $250,501,000 after buying an additional 318,808 shares during the last quarter. RTW Investments LP boosted its holdings in Bruker by 1.1% in the third quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,481,119 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $240,406,000 after acquiring an additional 37,024 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bruker by 10.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $137,702,000 after acquiring an additional 193,580 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Bruker by 140.3% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,141,762 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $66,930,000 after acquiring an additional 666,617 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bruker in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $63,378,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BRKR. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Bruker from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America raised their target price on Bruker from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. UBS Group started coverage on Bruker in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Bruker from $70.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Bruker in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.50.

Bruker Trading Down 3.3 %

BRKR stock opened at $40.38 on Wednesday. Bruker Co. has a 52-week low of $40.34 and a 52-week high of $92.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market cap of $6.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.13, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.18. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $56.57.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Bruker had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 3.36%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bruker Co. will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th were given a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.32%.

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.