Bruker (BRKR) at a 52-Week High: What's Driving the Stock?

Bruker Corporation BRKR scaled a new 52-week high of $30.93 on Oct 12, eventually closing a bit lower at $30.71. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has a market cap of $4.88 billion.

Comparison with Broader Industry

For the majority of the last six months, the company’s share price has considerably outperformed the broader industry. The stock has rallied 40.2% over the last six months, outshining the industry’s return of 28.9%. The company has also outperformed the S&P 500’s gain of 9.8% over the last six months. The company’s five-year historical growth rate is also favorable at 8.5% as compared to 0.8% of the broader industry and 2.8% of the S&P 500 index.

Taking the stable stock performance into consideration, we expect Bruker to gain ground in the coming quarters.

 

 

Growth Catalysts

The 52-week high came on the back of several new developments, the most recent being the introduction of the new CE-IVD marked Fungiplex Candida fast diagnostic assay, a multiplex real-time PCR test for the rapid identification of the most common pathogens associated with invasive candidiasis. The company also introduced the CE-IVD marked MICRONAUT-AM (antimycotics) test plate for the automated or manual antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST) of yeasts from cultures.

Recently, Bruker introduced the timsTOF Pro system for PASEF mass spectrometry at the 16th Annual World Congress of the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO). Also, Bruker announced the new D8 DISCOVER Plus X-ray diffraction (XRD) system at the Japan Analytical Scientific Instruments Show (JASIS).

Bruker recently completed the buyout of MERLIN Diagnostika GmbH, located in Germany.  MERLIN has specialized skills in products, services and consulting in the fields of antibiotic resistance testing (ART) and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST). This acquisition has also played a pivotal role in driving the company’s share price to a new 52-week high.

Key Stocks

A few better-ranked stocks in the medical sector are QIAGEN QGEN, IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. IDXX and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. TMO. QIAGEN, IDEXX Laboratories and Thermo Fisher carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

QIAGEN has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 13.1%. The stock rallied roughly 26.8% last year.

IDEXX Laboratories has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 19.8%. The stock gained 45.6% last year.

Thermo Fisher has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 11.7%. The stock gained 27.5% last year.

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