Should You Avoid Bruker Corporation (BRKR)?

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Is Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) worth your attention right now? Hedge funds are actually taking a pessimistic view. The number of bullish hedge fund bets that are revealed through the 13F filings declined by four to 20 during the third quarter. At the end of this article we will also compare BRKR to other stocks including Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD), Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR), and Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) to get a better sense of its popularity.

Follow Bruker Corp (NASDAQ:BRKR)

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Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a look at the new action surrounding Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR).

How have hedgies been trading Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR)?

At the end of September, a total of 20 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in Bruker Corporation, down by 17% from the second quarter of 2016. By comparison, 17 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in BRKR heading into 2016. So, let’s examine which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
BRBK
According to publicly available hedge fund and institutional investor holdings data compiled by Insider Monkey, Select Equity Group, led by Robert Joseph Caruso, holds the biggest position in Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR). Select Equity Group has a $110.1 million position in the stock, comprising 1% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Cliff Asness’s AQR Capital Management, holding a $79.5 million position; the fund has 0.1% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Remaining peers that hold long positions include D. E. Shaw’s D E Shaw, Paul Marshall and Ian Wace’s Marshall Wace LLP and John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors. We should note that none of these hedge funds are among our list of the 100 best performing hedge funds which is based on the performance of their 13F long positions in non-microcap stocks.

Since Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) has encountered a decline in interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there lies a certain “tier” of funds that elected to cut their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Intriguingly, Joel Greenblatt’s Gotham Asset Management said goodbye to the biggest position of all the investors studied by Insider Monkey, worth close to $5.7 million in stock, and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $3.7 million worth of shares.

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) but similarly valued. We will take a look at Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD), Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR), Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), and ON Semiconductor Corp (NASDAQ:ON). All of these stocks’ market caps are similar to BRKR’s market cap.

Ticker No of HFs with positions Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) Change in HF Position
BRCD 31 367907 3
HR 6 103017 -5
CGNX 11 256491 3
ON 21 494031 -12

As you can see these stocks had an average of 17 investors with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $305 million. That figure was $294 million in BRKR’s case. Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD) is the most popular stock in this table, while Healthcare Realty Trust Inc (NYSE:HR) is the least popular one with only six bullish hedge fund positions. Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:BRCD) might be a better candidate to consider taking a long position in.