NEW YORK – Bruker's flagship timsTOF mass spectrometry platform continues to see strong adoption, with the company reporting this week that as of the end of the second quarter it has placed more than 500 instruments.
Launched in 2016, the timsTOF has since become a favorite instrument among proteomics researchers, presenting the most serious challenge to Thermo Fisher Scientific's Orbitrap line, which dominated proteomics research in the years prior to the timsTOF release.
Bruker launched the latest version of the instrument, the timsTOF HT, at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry annual meeting in June. The platform is central to the company's efforts along a variety of fronts including conventional proteomics, single-cell proteomics, spatial proteomics, and imaging mass spectrometry.
During a conference call after the close of the markets on Wednesday, President and CEO Frank Laukien said the timsTOF is generating more than $125 million in annual revenues.
The company shipped 75 instruments in the first half of 2022, and, Laukien added, "due to some supply chain issues, our order performance is even higher than our revenue performance."
"We continue to bring out new workflows and new software [for the platform]," he said. "It continues to be, obviously, a double-digit growth product line for us."
Laukien said Bruker viewed the timsTOF HT as a "further strengthening of the product line," and expected it to appeal particularly to customers looking for high throughput and those conducting plasma proteomic research, such as liquid biopsy and cancer biomarker work.
For Q2, Bruker reported revenues of $588.4 million, up 3 percent from $570.8 million in Q2 2021 and short of the consensus Wall Street estimate of $590.9 million.
Organic revenues were up 9 percent year over year with acquisitions contributing nearly 2 percent growth and foreign currency translation having a negative effect of around 7 percent.
Bruker's CALID group, which houses its life science mass spectrometry business, posted revenues of $190.3 million in the quarter, down 2 percent from $193.3 million the year before.
In addition to strong timsTOF sales, Bruker saw strong demand for consumables for its MALDI Biotyper clinical microbiology system, Laukien said. He noted that demand for the company's life science mass spec products had been countered by "supply chain delays slowing revenue execution."
The company's BioSpin group had revenues of $159.8 million in the quarter, up 8 percent from $148.5 million in Q2 2021. Nano group revenues were $182.2 million, up 4 percent from $175.3 million, and BEST revenues were $59.2 million, up 5 percent from $56.6 million.
Bruker reported a profit of $49.5 million, or $.33 per share, compared to $57.6 million, or $.38 per share, a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, Bruker had EPS of $.45, matching the consensus Wall Street estimate.
The company's R&D costs were $59.6 million in Q2, up 7 percent from $55.8 million in Q2 2021. Its SG&A spending was $152.2 million, up 13 percent from $134.8 million in the year-ago quarter.
Bruker maintained its full-year 2022 organic revenue growth guidance of between 7 percent and 9 percent but lowered its reported revenue growth guidance to 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent to account for foreign currency headwinds, which it projected to be roughly 6 percent, up from a previous guidance of 3.5 percent.
Bruker ended the quarter with $723 million in cash and cash equivalents.