Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $74.45.

A number of research firms recently commented on BRKR. UBS Group assumed coverage on Bruker in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Bruker from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Bruker from $75.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Bruker from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Bruker from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 5th.

Bruker Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BRKR opened at $58.41 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $57.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $8.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.08, a P/E/G ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.18. Bruker has a 1-year low of $48.07 and a 1-year high of $94.86.

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

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.34%. Bruker’s payout ratio is presently 9.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bruker news, CEO Frank H. Laukien acquired 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was bought at an average price of $50.14 per share, for a total transaction of $5,014,000.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 38,439,563 shares in the company, valued at $1,927,359,688.82. The trade was a 0.26 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 28.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bruker

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its stake in Bruker by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 134,254 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $9,272,000 after buying an additional 14,069 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Bruker by 95.8% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 9,089 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $628,000 after acquiring an additional 4,447 shares during the period. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bruker by 7.3% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,553 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 10.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $137,702,000 after purchasing an additional 193,580 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its stake in Bruker by 36.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 55,685 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,847,000 after purchasing an additional 14,888 shares in the last quarter. 79.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.