Teacher Retirement System of Texas Decreases Stock Holdings in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas decreased its position in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 41.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 27,623 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 19,221 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Bruker were worth $1,619,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BRKR. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Bruker by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,306,122 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $987,981,000 after acquiring an additional 2,521,904 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Bruker by 140.3% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,141,762 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $66,930,000 after purchasing an additional 666,617 shares in the last quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 4,875.9% in the third quarter. Point72 DIFC Ltd now owns 470,171 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $32,470,000 after buying an additional 460,722 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in shares of Bruker by 1,933.2% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 410,234 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $28,331,000 after buying an additional 390,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Bruker by 9.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $250,501,000 after purchasing an additional 318,808 shares in the last quarter. 79.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Bruker from $70.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Bruker from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Bruker in a report on Monday, February 24th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Bruker in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Bruker from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bruker presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.50.

Bruker Stock Performance

Shares of BRKR opened at $43.45 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $50.84 and a 200-day moving average of $57.15. Bruker Co. has a 1 year low of $42.70 and a 1 year high of $94.52. The company has a market cap of $6.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.60.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Bruker had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 3.36%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bruker Co. will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a dividend of $0.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. Bruker’s payout ratio is currently 26.32%.

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.