NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Bruker reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its second quarter revenues were up 7 percent year over year, driven by growth in its scientific instruments business.
For the three months ended June 30, Billerica, Massachusetts-based Bruker reported revenues of $443.7 million, compared to $414.9 million in Q2 2017.
Organic revenue growth was 3 percent, with foreign exchange rates boosting revenues by slightly more than 3 percent and acquisitions boosting growth by less than 1 percent. The results beat the average Wall Street estimate of $436.9 million.
Bruker President and CEO Frank Laukien said on a conference call following release of the earnings results that the company saw 7 percent organic growth in its scientific instruments segment. He added that he CALID group, which houses the company's life sciences mass spec business, had single-digit revenue growth in the quarter and that its mass spec business specifically "had meaningfully higher revenues with strong performance in both our microbiology and our life science mass-spec portfolios."
Laukien also suggested that in the high-end mass spectrometry market the company "might be gaining a little bit of [market] share in the aggregate, both in academic and pharma."
He noted the release of Bruker's timsTOF Pro mass spec as a potentially "significant future driver" of growth, particularly in the proteomics market.
"We continue to be somewhat optimistic that we'll make good progress and can grow with the market and perhaps a little faster," he said.
Laukien also discussed the potential of the company's Bologna workflow, which uses its MALDI Biotyper to combine microbial identification from positive blood cultures with testing for resistance to cephalosporin and carbapenem antibiotics.
The workflow currently is CE-IVD marked, but Laukien said US Food and Drug Administration clearance is "more likely a year or so away."
Bruker's BEST segment saw revenues fall 26 percent on organic basis to $42.7 million.
Laukien said the company's Q2 revenue growth was driven by broadly favorable end market conditions with its academic, applied, pharma, microbiology, and industrial markets performing well.
Gerald Herman, Bruker's interim CFO, said on the call that revenues were up single-digits in Europe in the quarter, flat in North America, and up low double-digits in Asia-Pacific.
Bruker reported a profit of $31.2 million, or $.20 per share, compared to $23.4 million, or $.15 per share, a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, Bruker had EPS of $.25, matching the consensus Wall Street estimate.
The company's R&D costs were $43.6 million for the recently completed quarter, up 8 percent from $40.3 million in Q2 2017. Its SG&A spending was $110.6 million, up 8 percent from $102.5 million in the year-ago quarter.
Bruker said it expects revenue growth of 6.5 percent for full-year 2018 with organic growth of approximately 3.5 percent. The firm maintained its full-year 2018 non-GAAP EPS guidance at between $1.34 and $1.38. Wall Street is expecting the company's EPS to come in at $1.38 for the year.
Bruker ended the quarter with $258.7 million in cash and cash equivalents.
In Friday morning trading on the Nasdaq, Bruker shares were up 1 percent to $33.52.