Strs Ohio Sells 6,220 Shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Strs Ohio cut its stake in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 29.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,233 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 6,220 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Bruker were worth $1,119,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of BRKR. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Bruker by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,840,735 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $488,478,000 after acquiring an additional 594,362 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Bruker by 95.2% during the 3rd 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. RTW Investments LP increased its position in shares of Bruker by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,381,703 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $210,680,000 after purchasing an additional 422,100 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Bruker by 4,042.9% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 320,166 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $19,946,000 after purchasing an additional 312,438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Bruker during the 3rd quarter valued at $12,087,000. 79.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Bruker Trading Up 5.7 %

Shares of BRKR opened at $82.46 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.80. The firm has a market cap of $11.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.17. Bruker Co. has a fifty-two week low of $53.79 and a fifty-two week high of $94.86. The business has a 50-day moving average of $88.04 and a 200 day moving average of $74.39.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its earnings results 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 analyst estimates of $809.35 million. Bruker had a return on equity of 29.94% and a net margin of 14.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Bruker’s payout ratio is presently 6.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bruker

In other Bruker news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of Bruker 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 transaction, the director now owns 23,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,084,618.82. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 28.20% of the company’s stock.

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.