NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Bruker reported after the close of the market Wednesday that its first quarter revenues rose 6 percent.
Bruker reported total revenues of $375.4 million for the three months ended March 31, up from $353.5 million for the first quarter of 2015 and above analysts' consensus estimate of $360.2 million.
Its organic revenue was up just under 6 percent year over year, excluding a 1.5 percent positive effect from acquisitions, and a negative effect of roughly 1 percent from currency translation.
On a conference call following release of the results, Bruker President and CEO Frank Laukien said the company saw strong growth from both its BioSpin and CALID groups. He added that the company's strong quarter was due in part to placement of its first shielded ultra high-field Aeon 1 GHz NMR system ahead of schedule.
Within the CALID group, the company's Daltonics business, which houses its life sciences mass spectrometry offerings, grew at a high single-digit rate in Q1, driven primarily by strong sales of its MALDI Biotyper platform and growth in services revenue, Laukien said.
He highlighted several new enhancements to the MALDI Biotyper platform that Bruker released last month, including the ability to identify organisms at the strain level and to detect carbapenem-resistant organisms.
The new features are currently for research use only, but Laukien said Bruker hoped by the end of 2016 or early 2017 to obtain IVD-CE status for the carbapenem-resistance assay, which would allow the company to sell the assay for routine clinical microbiology work in Europe and certain other countries. He added that US Food and Drug Administration and Chinese FDA clearance could come around a year after that.
Laukien also noted that in its work using the newly released strain-typing feature, Bruker has identified additional antibiotic-resistance mechanisms that could be detectable using the MALDI Biotyper's proteomic fingerprinting approach.
In addition to mass spec, Bruker "experienced steady growth for the NMR products we are selling into applied and clinical research markets," Laukien said. Among the highlights of the company's NMR business during the quarter was installation of its shielded ultra high-field Aeon 1 GHz NMR system at the University of Bayreuth in German, where it will be used for research into structural biology, membrane proteins, and intrinsically disordered proteins.
Laukien said the company expected this initial installation would drive demand from other institutions for the instrument. He added that Bruker believes its ultra-high field NMR business could be contributing around $50 million to $75 million per year by 2018 or 2019.
Bruker posted net income of $23.6 million, or $.14 per share, for Q1, compared to a profit of $6.5 million, or $.04 per share, for Q1 2015. On a non-GAAP basis, its EPS was $.21, above the average Wall Street estimate of $.15.
The firm's R&D spending dropped 3 percent to $36.1 million from $37.2 million, while its SG&A expenses fell 2 percent to $92.7 million from $94.6 million. It also reported other charges of $4 million for the quarter, down from $13.2 million in Q1 2015.
The company maintained its full-year 2016 guidance, which calls for organic revenue growth of roughly 3 percent and non-GAAP EPS of $.97 to $1.02.
Bruker finished the quarter with $209.9 million in cash and cash equivalents.
In Thursday morning trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Bruker were down around 2 percent at $27.00.