Where Does The Smart Money Stand On Bruker Corporation (BRKR)?

With the third-quarter round of 13F filings behind us it is time to take a look at the stocks in which some of the best money managers in the world preferred to invest or sell heading into the fourth quarter of 2021. One of these stocks was Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR).

Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) shares haven’t seen a lot of action during the third quarter. Overall, hedge fund sentiment was unchanged. The stock was in 31 hedge funds’ portfolios at the end of September. Our calculations also showed that BRKR isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds (click for Q3 rankings). The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren’t the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds’ perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That’s why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY), FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC), and InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE:IHG) to gather more data points.

At Insider Monkey, we scour multiple sources to uncover the next great investment idea. For example, lithium prices have more than doubled over the past year, so we go through lists like the 10 best EV stocks to pick the next Tesla that will deliver a 10x return. Even though we recommend positions in only a tiny fraction of the companies we analyze, we check out as many stocks as we can. With all of this in mind let’s take a glance at the key hedge fund action regarding Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR).

Do Hedge Funds Think BRKR Is A Good Stock To Buy Now?

Heading into the fourth quarter of 2021, a total of 31 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were bullish on this stock, a change of 0% from one quarter earlier. The graph below displays the number of hedge funds with bullish position in BRKR over the last 25 quarters. So, let’s find out which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.

Among these funds, Arrowstreet Capital held the most valuable stake in Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR), which was worth $153 million at the end of the third quarter. On the second spot was Marshall Wace LLP which amassed $57.1 million worth of shares. Two Sigma Advisors, Montanaro Asset Management, and Alyeska Investment Group were also very fond of the stock, becoming one of the largest hedge fund holders of the company. In terms of the portfolio weights assigned to each position Montanaro Asset Management allocated the biggest weight to Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR), around 5.39% of its 13F portfolio. Sivik Global Healthcare is also relatively very bullish on the stock, earmarking 1.4 percent of its 13F equity portfolio to BRKR.

Seeing as Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR) has experienced declining sentiment from the aggregate hedge fund industry, it’s easy to see that there were a few money managers who sold off their positions entirely by the end of the third quarter. Interestingly, Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s Cinctive Capital Management cut the biggest stake of all the hedgies watched by Insider Monkey, worth about $10.2 million in call options. Richard SchimeláandáLawrence Sapanski’s fund, Cinctive Capital Management, also sold off its call options, about $1.5 million worth. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).

Let’s now review hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ:BRKR). We will take a look at Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY), FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC), InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE:IHG), Trex Company, Inc. (NYSE:TREX), Procore Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PCOR), Westlake Chemical Corporation (NYSE:WLK), and Host Hotels and Resorts Inc (NASDAQ:HST). This group of stocks’ market caps match BRKR’s market cap.

View table here if you experience formatting issues.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 24.4 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $804 million. That figure was $552 million in BRKR’s case. Godaddy Inc (NYSE:GDDY) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE:IHG) is the least popular one with only 9 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. Our overall hedge fund sentiment score for BRKR is 74.3. Stocks with higher number of hedge fund positions relative to other stocks as well as relative to their historical range receive a higher sentiment score. This is a slightly positive signal but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. Our calculations showed that top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 95.8% in 2019 and 2020, and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by 40 percentage points. These stocks gained 28.6% in 2021 through November 30th and beat the market again by 5.6 percentage points. Unfortunately BRKR wasn’t nearly as popular as these 5 stocks and hedge funds that were betting on BRKR were disappointed as the stock returned 3.7% since the end of September (through 11/30) and underperformed the market. If you are interested in investing in large cap stocks with huge upside potential, you should check out the top 5 most popular stocks among hedge funds as many of these stocks already outperformed the market since 2019.

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Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.