Global Retirement Partners LLC Grows Stake in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 16.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,135 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 726 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC’s holdings in Bruker were worth $301,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BRKR. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Bruker by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,306,122 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $987,981,000 after purchasing an additional 2,521,904 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Bruker by 9.6% during the third 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 period. RTW Investments LP increased its position in Bruker by 1.1% during the third quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,481,119 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $240,406,000 after acquiring an additional 37,024 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Bruker by 10.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $137,702,000 after acquiring an additional 193,580 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 140.3% in the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,141,762 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $66,930,000 after acquiring an additional 666,617 shares during the last quarter. 79.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented 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 report on Monday, February 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Bruker from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. UBS Group initiated coverage on Bruker in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Bruker from $70.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on Bruker from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.50.

Bruker Stock Performance

BRKR stock opened at $51.89 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.60 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Bruker Co. has a 1-year low of $48.07 and a 1-year high of $94.86. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $56.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.95. The company has a market capitalization of $7.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.28, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.16.

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

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.39%. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.32%.

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.