VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Takes $721,000 Position in Bruker Corporation $BRKR

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 17,500 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $721,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in shares of Bruker by 5.1% during the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 29,045 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,212,000 after purchasing an additional 1,422 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Bruker by 373.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 42,503 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,774,000 after purchasing an additional 33,522 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bruker by 35.6% during the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 40,450 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,717,000 after purchasing an additional 10,624 shares during the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Bruker by 71.2% during the second quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 1,293,645 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $53,298,000 after purchasing an additional 537,845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bruker by 38.0% during the first quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,522 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 1,520 shares during the last quarter. 79.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bruker Stock Performance

BRKR opened at $39.00 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 75.00, a PEG ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 1.20. Bruker Corporation has a 1-year low of $28.53 and a 1-year high of $64.64. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.31, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 0.70.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The medical research company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $797.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $811.17 million. Bruker had a return on equity of 17.89% and a net margin of 2.31%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.52 earnings per share. Bruker has set its FY 2025 guidance at 1.950-2.050 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Bruker Corporation will post 2.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 23rd were given a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 23rd. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bruker

In related news, Director Cynthia M. Friend sold 3,535 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.25, for a total transaction of $114,003.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 18,016 shares in the company, valued at approximately $581,016. This represents a 16.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 27.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BRKR shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Bruker from $60.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $40.00 target price on shares of Bruker and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $60.00 target price on shares of Bruker and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Bruker in a report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Bruker from $40.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.00.

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.