Raymond James Financial Inc. Invests $661,000 in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 11,268 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $661,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new position in Bruker in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $311,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in Bruker in the 3rd quarter valued at $313,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Bruker in the 3rd quarter valued at $268,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Bruker by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,627,300 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $250,501,000 after acquiring an additional 318,808 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in shares of Bruker by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 94,867 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $6,551,000 after acquiring an additional 318 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.52% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on BRKR. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Bruker in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 price target for the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on Bruker from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Bruker in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Bruker from $70.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Bruker from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.50.

Bruker Price Performance

NASDAQ:BRKR opened at $36.46 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.00. Bruker Co. has a 52-week low of $34.10 and a 52-week high of $91.34. 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 company has a market cap of $5.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.18.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Bruker Co. will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 17th were issued a $0.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Bruker’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.