Norden Group LLC Cuts Stake in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Norden Group LLC lessened its stake in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 17.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,191 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 884 shares during the quarter. Norden Group LLC’s holdings in Bruker were worth $308,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BRKR. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Bruker during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,384,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in Bruker by 62.5% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 315,210 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $23,161,000 after buying an additional 121,201 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Bruker by 55.7% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 138,302 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $8,616,000 after acquiring an additional 49,487 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Bruker by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,950,145 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $121,494,000 after acquiring an additional 56,869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 452,780 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bruker news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.06, for a total value of $1,350,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,084,618.82. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 28.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on BRKR shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Bruker from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bruker has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.86.

Bruker Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ BRKR opened at $79.03 on Thursday. Bruker Co. has a fifty-two week low of $53.79 and a fifty-two week high of $94.86. The company has a market cap of $11.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.07, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.17. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $88.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $75.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.80.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $844.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $809.35 million. Bruker had a net margin of 14.41% and a return on equity of 29.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.85%.

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.