Brown Advisory Inc. Purchases 35,873 Shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR - Free Report) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,590,151 shares of the medical research company's stock after purchasing an additional 35,873 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. owned about 1.15% of Bruker worth $116,844,000 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 the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its position in Bruker by 68.2% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 360 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 145.0% in the 3rd quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 512 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bruker in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in shares of Bruker by 53.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 541 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Bruker in the 4th quarter worth $42,000. 79.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on BRKR. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Bruker from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Bruker from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $84.86.

Bruker Stock Down 1.0 %

BRKR stock traded down $0.75 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $75.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,025,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,315,880. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. Bruker Co. has a 12 month low of $53.79 and a 12 month high of $94.86. The company has a market cap of $10.91 billion, a PE ratio of 27.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.22. The firm's 50-day moving average is $84.74 and its 200-day moving average is $76.32.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The medical research company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $721.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $729.88 million. Bruker had a net margin of 13.38% and a return on equity of 27.31%. Bruker's quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.64 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Bruker Co. will post 2.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 3rd will be paid a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Bruker's payout ratio is currently 7.27%.

Insider Transactions at Bruker

In other news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 28.30% of the company's stock.

About Bruker

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.

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