Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.05

Bruker Co. (NASDAQ:BRKR) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.05 per share by the medical research company on Monday, December 16th. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 2nd.

Bruker has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.7% annually over the last three years. Bruker has a payout ratio of 7.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Bruker to earn $2.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.1%.

Bruker Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:BRKR traded up $3.76 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $52.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 439,212 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,083,080. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.00, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.66. Bruker has a fifty-two week low of $48.07 and a fifty-two week high of $94.86.

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The medical research company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $864.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $866.46 million. Bruker had a return on equity of 21.52% and a net margin of 9.41%. Bruker’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Bruker will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on BRKR shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Bruker from $78.00 to $75.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Bruker from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Bruker from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Barclays reduced their price target on Bruker from $75.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Bruker from $80.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $79.36.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bruker

In related news, CEO Frank H. Laukien purchased 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $50.14 per share, with a total value of $5,014,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 38,439,563 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,927,359,688.82. This trade represents a 0.26 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

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.