NEW YORK – Bruker reported on Tuesday that its revenues in the third quarter rose 16 percent year over year.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, revenues were $864.4 million, up from $742.8 million in Q3 2023 and beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $859.4 million.
Organic revenues were up 3 percent as Bruker saw a nearly 1 percent positive effect on revenues from currency translation and a 13 percent positive effect from acquisitions.
The company's CALID group, which houses its life sciences and mass spectrometry business, posted 17 percent growth in the quarter with revenues of $279.4 million compared to $239.3 million the year before.
During a conference call following the release of the Q3 results, President and CEO Frank Laukien said that orders for Bruker’s "post-genomic, multiomics, cleantech, semicon tools and infectious disease diagnostics solutions are gradually improving," but added that while the biopharma and China markets are beginning to recover, this will not benefit the company in fiscal year 2024.
Laukien said China stimulus orders could begin to contribute to Bruker's revenues in the second half of 2025.
Laukien said that the company's CALID division had seen strong growth for its microbiology business, driven by its MALDI Biotyper franchise as well as its Elitech molecular diagnostics business. He said that US academic spending on life science instrumentation was relatively weak, however.
Laukien also noted that the company's recently acquired Cellular Analysis and NanoString businesses "continued to be impacted by weakness in biopharma and life science instrumentation."
Revenues for Bruker BioSpin rose 17 percent to $233.0 million from $198.3 million a year ago, Bruker Nano revenues spiked 20 percent to $287.1 million from $238.7 million, and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (BEST) revenues fell 3 percent to $68.7 million from $70.6 million.
The Billerica, Massachusetts-based company reported a profit of $40.9 million, or $.27 per share, in Q3 compared to $88.1 million, or $.60 per share, a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, Bruker had EPS of $.60, above the consensus Wall Street estimate of $.59.
Bruker's R&D costs were $98.1 million for the quarter, up 38 percent from $71.3 million in Q3 2023. Its SG&A spending was $229.9 million, up 30 percent from $177.6 million in the year-ago quarter.
Bruker ended the quarter with $151.7 million in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash.
The company lowered its 2024 revenue guidance to a range of $3.34 billion to $3.37 billion, down from its previous guidance of $3.38 billion to $3.44 billion. This implies 12.5 percent to 13.5 percent revenue growth year over year, down from a projection of 14 percent to 16 percent. The firm projects full-year 2024 non-GAAP EPS of between $2.36 and $2.41, down from its previous guidance of $2.59 to $2.64.
In Tuesday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Bruker shares were down less than 1 percent to $58.99.