NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Bruker reported after the close of the market Monday that its fourth quarter revenues were up 4 percent year over year.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, the company reported revenues of $553.6 million, up from $530.5 million in Q4 2017, and beating the average analyst estimate of $544.6 million.
Organic revenue growth during the quarter was 4 percent, with acquisitions contributing 3 percent and foreign currency translation lowering revenues 2 percent.
For the quarter, Bruker recorded net income attributable to the company of $78.1 million, or $.50 per share, compared to a net loss of $3.4 million, or $.02 per share, in Q4 2017. The company's Q4 2017 earnings were affected by changes in the US tax law, which resulted in Bruker recording a charge of $68.9 million in that quarter.
On an adjusted basis, Bruker reported Q4 EPS of $.54, matching the consensus Wall Street estimate.
Bruker's Q4 R&D costs rose 4 percent to $44.8 million from $43.1 million the year before, while its SG&A expenses rose 5 percent to $117.3 million from $111.9 million year over year.
For full-year 2018, Bruker's revenues rose 7 percent to $1.9 billion from $1.77 billion in 2017, matching the consensus Wall Street estimate. Currency effects boosted revenues by 2 percent, while acquisitions increased revenues by 1 percent. Organically, revenues rose 4 percent, the firm said.
Bruker's net income attributable to the company for 2018 rose 129 percent to $179.7 million, or $1.14 per share, from $78.6 million, or $.49 per share, in 2017. On an adjusted basis, Bruker reported EPS of $1.40, matching the Wall Street estimate.
Bruker's 2018 R&D costs increased 7 percent year over year to $173.4 million from $161.6 million, while its SG&A spending rose 7 percent to $444.7 million from $415.2 million.
On an earnings call following release of the results, Bruker President and CEO Frank Laukien noted that the company saw particularly strong growth from its Nano and CALID groups, the latter of which houses Bruker's mass spectrometry business.
Revenues from the CALID group were up in the high single-digits in 2018, with growth "driven by our mass spectrometry and FT-IR and Near-IR molecular spectroscopy businesses as well as contributions from our microbiology and diagnostics business," Laukien said, though he noted that due to a decline in the group's detection business, Bruker is planning layoffs of around 45 employees by the middle of 2019.
Within mass spec, the company saw "strong organic performance" in both its microbiology and life science portfolios, including among its high-resolution QTOF instruments, he said, adding that Bruker had received positive feedback among early customers for its recently launched timsTOF Pro mass spec system, which the company expects will contribute "meaningful revenue" this year.
Geographically, Bruker saw low single-digit growth in Europe, low double-digit growth in North America, and mid single-digit growth in Asia-Pacific in 2018.
The company said it expected 2019 EPS of between $1.54 and $1.58, up between 10 percent and 13 percent from 2018.
Bruker exited 2018 with $326.3 million in cash and cash equivalents.
In morning trading on Nasdaq, Bruker shares were up 2 percent to $36.12.