Bank of America Corp DE Sells 14,392 Shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Bank of America Corp DE lessened its stake in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,371,960 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 14,392 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in Bruker were worth $80,424,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BRKR. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 262.3% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,961,416 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $114,978,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,102 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Bruker during the 4th quarter valued at about $63,378,000. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 4,510.3% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 783,988 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $45,957,000 after purchasing an additional 766,983 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 140.3% during the 4th quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,141,762 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $66,930,000 after purchasing an additional 666,617 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,687,364 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $98,914,000 after purchasing an additional 313,171 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have commented on BRKR shares. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Bruker from $57.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Bruker from $57.00 to $48.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Bruker from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Bruker from $50.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Bruker from $75.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.10.

Bruker Trading Down 6.7%

BRKR opened at $37.79 on Monday. Bruker Co. has a one year low of $34.10 and a one year high of $79.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 1.60. The stock has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $41.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.10.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The medical research company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.01. Bruker had a return on equity of 21.01% and a net margin of 3.36%. The company had revenue of $801.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $763.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. Bruker’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Bruker Co. will post 2.69 EPS for the current year.

Bruker Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Monday, March 17th were paid a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.32%.

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.