Xponance Inc. Has $1.73 Million Stock Position in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Xponance Inc. lowered its stake in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 23,488 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 1,555 shares during the period. Xponance Inc.’s holdings in Bruker were worth $1,726,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in BRKR. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Bruker by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,840,735 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $488,478,000 after purchasing an additional 594,362 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bruker by 95.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 928,418 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $57,840,000 after purchasing an additional 452,780 shares during the period. RTW Investments LP raised its stake in Bruker by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,381,703 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $210,680,000 after buying an additional 422,100 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Bruker by 4,042.9% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 320,166 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $19,946,000 after buying an additional 312,438 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Bruker during the 3rd quarter worth $12,087,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on BRKR. Citigroup raised their price objective on Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Bruker from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. UBS Group raised their price objective on Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Bruker from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective 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 given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.86.

Bruker Stock Performance

BRKR opened at $82.46 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $88.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $74.39. Bruker Co. has a 1 year low of $53.79 and a 1 year high of $94.86. The company has a market capitalization of $11.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $844.50 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $809.35 million. Bruker had a return on equity of 29.94% and a net margin of 14.41%. Bruker’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.74 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Bruker’s payout ratio is 6.85%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 4th. The stock was 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 owns 23,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,084,618.82. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 28.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.