Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,810,000 shares, a drop of 12.2% from the October 15th total of 4,340,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,160,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days. Currently, 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Bruker

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC increased its stake in Bruker by 21.4% in the third 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Bruker by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $250,501,000 after buying an additional 318,808 shares during the period. RTW Investments LP raised its stake in Bruker by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,481,119 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $240,406,000 after buying an additional 37,024 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 worth $137,702,000 after acquiring an additional 193,580 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Bruker by 127.8% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,389,537 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $88,666,000 after acquiring an additional 779,549 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BRKR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays dropped their target price on Bruker from $75.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Bruker from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Bruker from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup cut their price target on Bruker from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered Bruker from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $79.36.

Bruker Trading Down 5.9 %

Shares of BRKR stock traded down $3.19 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $51.30. 1,978,983 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,353,219. The stock has a market cap of $7.78 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.20. Bruker has a 12 month low of $50.88 and a 12 month high of $94.86. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $65.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by ($0.01). Bruker had a return on equity of 21.52% and a net margin of 9.41%. The company had revenue of $864.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $866.46 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.74 earnings per share. Bruker’s revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bruker will post 2.4 EPS for the current year.

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.