Teacher Retirement System of Texas Has $1.62 Million Position in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas reduced its holdings in Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) by 41.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 27,623 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 19,221 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Bruker were worth $1,619,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its position in Bruker by 21.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,306,122 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $987,981,000 after purchasing an additional 2,521,904 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 318,808 shares during the last quarter. RTW Investments LP grew its position in shares of Bruker by 1.1% in the third quarter. RTW Investments LP now owns 3,481,119 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $240,406,000 after purchasing an additional 37,024 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Bruker by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,993,468 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $137,702,000 after buying an additional 193,580 shares during the period. Finally, Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in Bruker by 140.3% in the 4th 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. 79.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Bruker from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. Bank of America raised their target price on Bruker from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Bruker from $70.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Bruker from $69.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on Bruker in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $66.00 target price on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.50.

Bruker Price Performance

NASDAQ BRKR opened at $43.45 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $50.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $57.15. Bruker Co. has a 12-month low of $42.70 and a 12-month high of $94.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.60, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.01. Bruker had a net margin of 3.36% and a return on equity of 21.01%. Analysts forecast that Bruker Co. will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bruker Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 0.46%. 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.