HighTower Advisors LLC Has $453,000 Holdings in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 32.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,528 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 3,180 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bruker were worth $453,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC increased its position in Bruker by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,306,122 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $987,981,000 after buying an additional 2,521,904 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in shares of Bruker by 127.8% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,389,537 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $88,666,000 after purchasing an additional 779,549 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Bruker by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,277,273 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $81,508,000 after purchasing an additional 101,539 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Bruker by 3.0% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 966,069 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $61,645,000 after buying an additional 27,870 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bruker by 11.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 899,638 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $62,129,000 after acquiring an additional 94,612 shares during the last quarter. 79.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Frank H. Laukien purchased 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $50.14 per share, with a total value of $5,014,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 38,439,563 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,927,359,688.82. This trade represents a 0.26 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 28.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Bruker Stock Performance

Shares of BRKR opened at $57.00 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.44. Bruker Co. has a 52-week low of $48.07 and a 52-week high of $94.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.66.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.01). Bruker had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 21.52%. The firm had revenue of $864.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $866.46 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. Bruker’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Bruker Co. will post 2.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.05 per share. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio is 9.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BRKR shares. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Bruker from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Bruker in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 price objective for the company. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Bruker from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Bruker from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Bruker from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.45.

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.