Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) Shares Gap Up to $77.76

Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $77.76, but opened at $80.64. Bruker shares last traded at $78.59, with a volume of 141,992 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Bruker from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $60.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Bruker from $66.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Bruker from $63.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup upped their target price on Bruker from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Bruker from $94.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.86.

Bruker Trading Up 5.7 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.24, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $88.04 and a 200-day moving average of $74.39.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.05. The business 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.74 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Bruker Co. will post 2.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bruker news, Director Hermann Fritz Requardt sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.06, for a total transaction of $1,350,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 23,147 shares in the company, valued at $2,084,618.82. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 28.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Bruker by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 8,080,071 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $593,724,000 after buying an additional 239,336 shares in the last quarter. RTW Investments LP boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 422,100 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,950,145 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $121,494,000 after purchasing an additional 56,869 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,664,779 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $122,328,000 after purchasing an additional 562,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,590,151 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $116,844,000 after purchasing an additional 35,873 shares in the last quarter. 79.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.