Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Reduces Stock Holdings in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lowered its holdings in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,576 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 850 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Bruker were worth $2,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Bruker by 21.4% during the third 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 during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Bruker by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $250,501,000 after acquiring an additional 318,808 shares during the period. RTW Investments LP increased its stake in shares of Bruker by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,481,119 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $240,406,000 after purchasing an additional 37,024 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Bruker by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $137,702,000 after purchasing an additional 193,580 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Bruker by 127.8% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,389,537 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $88,666,000 after purchasing an additional 779,549 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BRKR. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Bruker from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Bruker from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. 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. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Bruker from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of Bruker from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $74.70.

Bruker Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of BRKR stock opened at $57.18 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $58.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.65. Bruker Co. has a 52 week low of $48.07 and a 52 week high of $94.86. The stock has a market cap of $8.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.49, a PEG ratio of 4.00 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24.

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

Bruker Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Bruker

In related news, CEO Frank H. Laukien acquired 100,000 shares of Bruker stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were bought at an average cost 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,927,359,688.82. The trade was a 0.26 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 28.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.