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Bruker Posts 3 Percent Rise in Q1 Revenues

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Bruker reported after the close of the market Wednesday that its first quarter revenues rose 3 percent.

Bruker reported total revenues of $384.9 million for the three months ended March 31, up from $375.4 million for the first quarter of 2016 and above analysts' consensus estimate of $372.7 million.

Its organic revenue was down around 1 percent year over year, excluding a 5 percent positive effect from acquisitions, and a negative effect of roughly 2 percent from currency translation.

On a conference call following release of the results, Bruker President and CEO Frank Laukien said the company saw a decline in revenues from its mass spec business but an uptick in parts of its industrial and applied segments as well as stabilization of orders in its microbiology business.

The company's CALID group, which houses its life sciences mass spec offering, posted a decline in revenue in the mid-to-high single digits, as, Laukien said, mass spec revenues "continued to be negatively impacted by the weak European academic bookings in the first nine months of 2016."

Bruker's BioSpin group posted low single-digit revenues as its NMR business reported what Laukien said were "solid" sales during the quarter, offsetting weakness in preclinical imaging.

From a geographic perspective, the company saw a mid-single-digit decline in European revenues, but a year-over-year rise in orders, while North American revenues were up in the low-single digits but orders were sluggish.

Asia-Pacific revenues were up low-double digits but with China posting sales growth of more than 20 percent.

Laukien highlighted several new releases from Bruker's microbiology business, including its Fungiplex Aspergillus identification and Carbaplex resistance gene assays, which are PCR assays that test for, respectively, pathogens linked to invasive Aspergillus infections and genes involved in carbapenem resistance. These tests are the first new products to come from Bruker's purchase last year of intellectual property and personnel enabling PCR test development.

The company also introduced during the quarter its MALDI Biotyper STAR-Carba assay, a CE-IVD marked assay for testing for carbapenem resistance on the MALDI Biotyper platform. The test is the first CE-IVD marked mass spec test for antibiotic-resistance testing to come to market, Laukien said.

Bruker posted net income of $21.6 million, or $.13 per share, for Q1, compared to a profit of $23.6 million, or $.14 per share, for Q1 2016. On a non-GAAP basis, its EPS was $.19, matching the average Wall Street estimate.

The firm's R&D spending rose 4 percent to $37.6 million from $36.1 million, while its SG&A expenses rose 6 percent to $98.1 million from $92.7 million. It also reported other charges of $3.1 million for the quarter, down from $4 million in Q1 2016.

The company maintained its full-year 2017 guidance, which calls for organic revenue growth of roughly 2 percent to 3.5 percent and non-GAAP EPS of $1.05 to $1.09.

Bruker finished the quarter with $277.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, and $187 million in short-term investments.

In Thursday morning trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Bruker were up around 5 percent at $26.26.