LA Financiere DE L Echiquier Has $8.91 Million Position in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

LA Financiere DE L Echiquier increased its stake in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR - Free Report) by 21.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 121,247 shares of the medical research company's stock after buying an additional 21,453 shares during the quarter. LA Financiere DE L Echiquier owned about 0.09% of Bruker worth $8,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BRKR. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Bruker by 62.5% in the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 315,210 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $23,161,000 after acquiring an additional 121,201 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bruker by 55.7% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 138,302 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $8,616,000 after buying an additional 49,487 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Bruker by 3.0% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,950,145 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $121,494,000 after buying an additional 56,869 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bruker by 95.2% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 928,418 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $57,840,000 after buying an additional 452,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Bruker by 28.6% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 33,441 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $2,083,000 after acquiring an additional 7,443 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.52% of the company's stock.

Bruker Price Performance

Shares of Bruker stock traded down $0.19 during trading on Monday, reaching $90.23. The company's stock had a trading volume of 666,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 791,191. Bruker Co. has a one year low of $53.79 and a one year high of $94.86. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $85.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $72.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.17.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.05. Bruker had a return on equity of 29.94% and a net margin of 14.41%. The business had revenue of $844.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $809.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Bruker's payout ratio is currently 6.85%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.06, for a total value of $1,350,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly 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 SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 28.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BRKR. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Bruker in a research report on Tuesday, December 19th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $72.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Bruker in a research report on Wednesday, December 13th. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Bruker from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $60.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bruker has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $84.29.

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.