Bruker Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Bruker EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.49
• Consensus EPS: $0.38
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.11
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.32

Bruker Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $838.50 million
• Expected Revenue: $853.57 million
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$15.07 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +5.20%

Bruker Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/4/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, August 4, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Bruker (NASDAQ:BRKR), founded in 1960 by physicist Günther Laukien and headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance scientific instruments and analytical solutions. The company designs systems that enable molecular and materials research across academic, governmental, and industrial laboratories.

Bruker’s product portfolio encompasses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers for molecular structure and dynamics studies, mass spectrometry platforms for proteomics and metabolomics, X-ray diffraction and scattering instruments for crystallography and materials characterization, atomic force and scanning probe microscopes for nanoscale surface analysis, as well as preclinical imaging systems such as micro-CT and MRI scanners.

In addition to hardware, Bruker provides software suites, applications support, training services, and long-term maintenance agreements to ensure optimal instrument performance. Its solutions serve a diverse range of customers in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, chemical, semiconductor, energy and environmental sectors. With R&D, manufacturing and service centers located throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, Bruker maintains a global footprint to support its worldwide customer base.

Under the leadership of Executive Chairman and CEO Frank H. Laukien, Bruker continues to invest in internal research and strategic acquisitions to expand its technology platforms. The company’s ongoing innovation and collaborative partnerships reinforce its position as a key supplier of analytical instrumentation to the scientific community.

Bruker Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Bruker returned to organic revenue growth in Q2, with revenue up 5.2% year over year and organic bookings growth of 10%; biopharma bookings rose more than 20%, while semiconductor metrology and energy research orders grew more than 50%.
• Positive Sentiment: Cost reductions, favorable mix and volume drove a 510-basis-point increase in non-GAAP operating margin to 14.1%, while non-GAAP EPS rose 53% to $0.49. The company remains on track for $140 million in annualized 2026 savings and expects an additional $20 million of savings from its new operating structure in 2027.
• Positive Sentiment: Management reiterated its 2026 outlook, including 1%-2% organic revenue growth, 250-300 basis points of operating-margin expansion and non-GAAP EPS of $2.10-$2.15, representing 15%-17% growth. Executives also expect further margin expansion and double-digit EPS growth in 2027.
• Negative Sentiment: U.S. academic and government demand remained weak, contributing to a more than $15 million year-over-year revenue decline in that market during Q2, while Asia-Pacific revenue fell by low double digits. A $135 million non-cash goodwill impairment tied to the loss-making automation and spatial biology businesses resulted in a GAAP diluted loss of $0.41 per share.
• Neutral Sentiment: About $20 million of semiconductor revenue is shifting from Q3 into Q4 due to customer delivery requirements, leading management to expect Q3 organic revenue to be roughly flat to slightly up and sequentially lower margins and EPS. The company expects a significantly stronger Q4, supported by semiconductor deliveries, an ultra-high-field system and improved volume and mix.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day. Welcome to the Bruker Corporation second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations at Bruker]

Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to Bruker Corporation's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. My name is Joe Kostka, and I am the director of Bruker investor relations. Joining me on today's call are our President and CEO, Frank Laukien, and our EVP and CFO, Gerald Herman. In addition to the earnings release we issued earlier today, during today's conference call, we will be referencing a slide presentation that can be downloaded from the Events and Presentation section of Bruker's Investor Relations website. During today's call, we will be highlighting non-GAAP financial information. Reconciliations of our non-GAAP to GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and are posted on our website at ir.bruker.com. I would like to reference Bruker's safe harbor statement, which is shown on slide two of the presentation.

[Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations at Bruker]

During this conference call, we will or may make forward-looking statements regarding future events and the financial and operational performance of the company that involve risks and uncertainties, including those related to our recent acquisitions, geopolitical risks, wars or blockades, market demand, tariffs, currency exchange rates, competitive dynamics, or supply chains. The company's actual results may differ materially from such statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in today's earnings release and in our Form 10-K for the period ending December 31st, 2025, as updated by our other SEC filings, which are available on our website and on the SEC's website. Please note that the following information is based on current business conditions and on our outlook as of today, August 4th, 2026.

[Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations at Bruker]

We do not intend to update our forward-looking statements based on new information, future events, or for other reasons, except as may be required by law, prior to the release of our third quarter 2026 financial results, expected in early November 2026. You should not rely on these forward-looking statements as necessarily representing our views or outlook as of any date after today. We will begin today's call with Frank providing an overview of our business progress. Gerald will then cover the financials for the second quarter of 2026 in more detail and comment on our full-year 2026 financial outlook. I'd like to turn the call over to Bruker CEO, Frank Laukien.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Thanks, Joe. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's second quarter 2026 earnings call. We are pleased that Bruker has returned to organic revenue growth in the second quarter, and that our focus on cost reductions and profitability improvements resulted in solid margin expansion and non-GAAP EPS growth. Demand for our differentiated products and solutions improved further as our scientific instruments segment achieved 10% organic bookings growth year-over-year, a fourth consecutive quarter with a scientific instruments book-to-bill ratio above 1.0. Organic bookings in biopharma grew more than 20% in the second quarter, driven by demand for our NMR, X-ray, and mass spectrometry solutions. In our academic medical research business, bookings in Europe and China were up strongly. However, U.S. academic orders still remained weak in Q2.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

We saw notable Q2 order strength in our deep tech semiconductor tools and energy research technologies, with both at over 50% organic order growth year-over-year. In semiconductor metrology, we sell robust and innovative metrology equipment for chip manufacturers with significant demand increases for high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging driven by AI scaling. In energy research, we provide unique tools and modules for fusion energy development and high-energy physics research. These proprietary deep tech capabilities, which also include our security detection systems, are valuable to have in the portfolio as life science research demand recovers gradually. These deep tech tools tend to have longer delivery times, in some cases of 9-24 months, determined by facility readiness, for example, for a new logic or memory chip wafer fabs or for large-scale fusion development projects.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

As a result, some of our strong deep tech bookings will benefit our Q4 and then 2027 and even the outer years. We are continuing to take costs out to drive margin expansion and double-digit EPS growth this year, and also again in 2027. We have made good progress in the second quarter, realizing more cumulative cost reductions. We are well on track for our stated goal of delivering $140 million of annualized cost savings in 2026. I would like to thank our teams for their very important efforts in this area. Effective as of July 1st of this year, Bruker has adopted a new operating structure that combines our BioSpin, Daltonics, and Optics divisions into a new Bruker Biosystems group led by Group President Jürgen Srega.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

The newly merged Biosystems group addresses the growing need for scientific integration in the post-genomic era, which combines complementary life science research workflows into more comprehensive disease biology insights. Across post-genomic drug discovery, multiomics, and applied markets, our customers connect structural, molecular, and cellular information to understand complex systems biology or advanced materials research. The Biosystems group brings together NMR, mass spectrometry, FTIR, Raman, preclinical automation software, and applications expertise in any of these areas for connected workflows from research to quality control. Examples include metabolomics, RNA characterization, or protein analysis, where NMR and mass spectrometry provide important complementary insights. As another example, in battery research development and battery life cycle QC, where NMR and FTIR characterize electrolytes, electrodes, and chemistry.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

In addition, Bruker Microbiology & Infection Diagnostics, which we sometimes abbreviate as BMID, previously a division within the CALID Group, has now been established as a group under the leadership of Dr. Wolfgang Pusch. This BMID group has a fast-growing microbiology and infection diagnostics portfolio from microbial identification, molecular diagnostics, hospital hygiene, to emerging antimicrobial resistance testing and next-generation sequencing for sepsis and reflex testing. This modified group structure aligns Bruker more closely with markets and our customers. By organizing around connected workflows, we strengthen group-level agility and our ability to prioritize investments that deliver innovation with the most impact. Following these changes, Bruker now operates in four groups: Bruker Biosystems, Bruker Nano, BMID or Bruker Microbiology & Infection Diagnostics, and Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies or BEST. This new structure is expected to drive an additional $20 million of cost reductions in fiscal year 2027.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

All right, on to the quarter. Let's turn to slide four now for the P&L performance of the second quarter. Our Q2 2026 reported revenues of $839 million increased 5.2% year-over-year, with organic growth of 2.8% or 3.4% organic growth excluding tariff refunds in the second quarter. The revenue contribution from M&A was 1.5%, and constant exchange rate or CER growth was 4.3%. The 0.9% FX revenue tailwind was actually 50 basis points lower than originally expected. BSI segment revenues were up 2.3% organically, while BEST achieved organic revenue growth of 8.9% net of intercompany eliminations. Our second quarter 2026 non-GAAP gross and operating margins were 52.1% and 14.1% respectively, both up significantly year-over-year, albeit in comparison to a weak second quarter 2025, and including a net U.S. tariff refund benefit that Gerald will describe in a moment.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Our second quarter 2026 diluted non-GAAP EPS was $0.49, up 53% from $0.32 in the second quarter of 2025. Moving to slide five, H1 2026 revenues increased by 3.9% to $1.66 billion. First half organic revenue was still a decline of 0.8%, consisting of a 1.4% organic decline in scientific instruments and 6.1% organic growth at BEST, net of intercompany eliminations. Our first half 2026 non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, and EPS were all up year-over-year, and their performance is summarized on slide five. Gerald will go into more detail on the drivers shortly. Please turn to slides six and seven, where we highlight the first half 2026 performance of our three scientific instruments group and of BEST, all in constant currency and year-over-year basis. In the first half of 2026, the BioSpin group revenue was $393 million, down mid-single digits percentage year-over-year.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

BioSpin saw strong revenue growth in hospital, clinical, and biopharma, offset by weakness in China, Aca/Gov, food testing, and automation. NMR preclinical and preclinical imaging had robust order growth, both up double digits in the first half year-over-year. For the first half of 2026, CALID group revenue of $627 million increased in the mid-single digits percentage driven by mass spectrometry, including the TOFWERK acquisition. CALID saw strength in biopharma, security detection, and European Aca/Gov, partially offset by weaker revenues in the U.S. First-half revenue growth in molecular diagnostics was solid, while microbiology was roughly flat. Please turn to slide seven now. First half 2026 Bruker Nano revenue was $507 million, with a low single-digit percentage decline. Nano saw weakness in Aca/Gov and industrial markets, while weakness in U.S. Aca/Gov funding continued to impact spatial biology.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

This was largely offset by robust strength in semiconductor metrology due to AI-driven orders for memory and advanced packaging metrology tools. Finally, the first half of 2026, BEST revenues were up 6%, net of intercompany eliminations, with strong growth in the superconductor business and solid revenue growth at Research Instruments, or RI. In the first half, RI secured very strong multi-year orders for fusion energy and high-energy physics technologies, and I'll come back to that in a moment. Moving to slide eight and nine. On slide eight, we highlight our semiconductor metrology nanotools, which are now clearly moving the needle for Bruker. I won't go through the technical details, but invite you to read those at your convenience. The first half of 2026, organic order growth was greater than 30%, and the first half 2026 organic revenue growth was greater than 15%, obviously somewhat lagging behind order growth.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

This business is very profitable. It has about a 30% EBIT margin. Longer lead times in this business, which can be 9-24 months, can result in revenue lagging order growth by several quarters. If you go to slide nine, we touch on our other deep tech areas, our security detection on the left and energy research on the right, those two businesses also seeing considerable strength. The first half detection orders and revenue were both up approximately 20% year-over-year. Whereas, as I just mentioned, our first half Research Instruments, RI energy research orders were up well over 100% year-over-year. In general, for perspective, keep in mind that Bruker and our orders tend to lag. Our revenues tend to lag the order trends by a couple of quarters.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

For these deep tech areas that I just mentioned, many of them will begin to help our revenue and P&L in Q4 of this year, then very much into 2027 and into the outer years. In summary, in the second quarter, we achieved solid orders in many life science end markets, we achieved very strong order growth in our so-called deep tech tools. We made further meaningful progress on our cost actions, setting us up for continued margin expansion and EPS growth in fiscal year 2026, we are proactively taking additional cost-out steps that are expected to add additional P&L benefits next year. With that, let me turn the call over to our CFO, Gerald Herman, who will review Bruker's Q2 and fiscal year 2026 outlook in more detail. Gerald.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Thank you, Frank, and thank you everyone for joining us today. I'm pleased to provide more detail on Bruker's second quarter and first half 2026 financial performance starting on slide 11. In the second quarter of 2026, our results came in at the low end of our expectations on the top line, but meaningfully ahead of expectations on margins and EPS. Our top-line results in the second quarter of 2026 were unfavorably impacted by U.S. tariff refunds and a stronger U.S. dollar, which translated into less tailwind on revenue. In total, approximately 110 basis points. U.S. tariff refunds reduced our organic revenue growth from 3.4% to 2.8%, but strengthened our profitability in the quarter, adding around 200 basis points to the second quarter 2026 operating margins year-over-year. Net U.S. tariffs contributed about $0.06 to EPS in the second quarter.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Most importantly, we also saw the accumulating impact of our cost-saving actions accelerate in the quarter, together with favorable mix and volume. In the second quarter of 2026, Bruker's reported revenue increased 5.2% to $838.5 million, reflecting a pivot to organic growth in the quarter of 2.8% or 3.4% year-over-year, excluding U.S. tariff refunds. Acquisitions contributed 1.5% to our top line, while foreign exchange was a 0.9% tailwind, resulting in constant exchange rate revenue growth of 4.3% year-over-year. Geographically, and on a year-over-year organic basis in the second quarter of 2026, our Americas and European revenues both grew approximately 10%, while Asia-Pacific revenue declined in the low double-digits percentage, including a low double-digit decline of revenue in China. For our EMEA region, revenue was down low single-digit percentage.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

BSI organic revenue grew 2.3% in the second quarter of 2026, with low single-digit organic growth in CALID and Bruker Nano, partially offset by flat revenue performance in BioSpin. BSI instrument revenue was roughly flat, and BSI aftermarket revenues were up mid-single digits organically year-over-year. Our BSI segment order book performance was up organically a solid 10% year-over-year, driven by greater than 50% growth in semi and greater than 20% growth in biopharma, partially offset by declines in U.S. Aca/Gov and food safety. Second quarter 2026 non-GAAP gross margin increased 350 basis points to 52.1%. Non-GAAP operating margin was 14.1%, up 510 basis points driven by our cost-saving actions, positive net U.S. tariff impact, and favorable volume mix, partially offset by foreign currency headwinds, as shown on the slide.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

On a non-GAAP basis, second quarter 2026 diluted EPS was $0.49, up 53% from the $0.32 in the second quarter of 2025. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 25%, compared to 23.6% in the second quarter of 2025. On a GAAP basis, we reported a diluted loss per share of $0.41, compared to GAAP EPS of $0.05 in the second quarter of 2025. Our second quarter 2026 GAAP results include a non-cash goodwill impairment charges of $135 million related to our automation and spatial biology businesses, which continue to experience operating losses. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding in the second quarter of 2026 were 152.8 million, an increase of 1.1 million shares from the second quarter of 2025. Slide 12 shows Bruker's performance for the first half of 2026, which has similar drivers to the second quarter.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Turning to slide 13, in the second quarter of 2026, our operating cash flow improved $50 million year-over-year, driven by improved profitability and the timing of tax and vendor payments in the quarter. Free cash flow improved approximately $43 million on a year-over-year basis. On stronger EBITDA in the second quarter of 2026, our net leverage ratio is now 2.8x as of June 30, 2026. Turning now to slide 15, our fiscal year 2026 financial outlook has been updated for foreign currency and effective tax rates only. We now expect a foreign exchange tailwind to revenues of 0.5% rather than 1.5% previously, resulting in reported revenue of $3.54 billion-$3.57 billion, and representing reported growth of 3%-4% compared to FY 2025.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Organic revenue growth of 1%-2% year-over-year, which is unchanged. Acquisitions are expected to contribute 1.5% to growth, also unchanged. We continue to expect non-GAAP operating margin expansion of 250-300 basis points year-over-year, largely driven by our cost-saving actions. On the bottom line, we continue to expect non-GAAP EPS for FY 2026 in a range of $2.10-$2.15, or non-GAAP EPS growth of 15%-17% compared to FY 2025, all unchanged, as lower headwinds from foreign exchange are broadly offset by our higher effective tax rate. Other guidance assumptions are listed on the slide. Our FY 2026 ranges have been updated for foreign currency rates as of June 30, 2026. Some color on the third quarter of 2026.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

We expect approximately $20 million of previously planned third quarter revenue to shift into the fourth quarter, driven by semiconductor customer delivery requirements. This results in Q3 organic revenue to be roughly flat to up slightly year-over-year. On operating margins and EPS in the third quarter, we now expect a slight sequential decrease due to the $20 million semi revenue shift from the third to the fourth quarter, and the $0.06 net U.S. tariff EPS benefit previously expected to come into the third quarter being pulled into the second quarter. On a positive note, for the fourth quarter of 2026, we now expect meaningful sequential and year-over-year increases in organic revenue growth, operating margin, and EPS due to significantly higher volume and favorable mix in the fourth quarter.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

To wrap up, Q2 2026 was another solid bookings quarter for Bruker, giving us further confidence in a gradual market recovery in several key markets and geographies. Our cost-saving actions are well on track, positioning us well for significant margin and profitability improvement in FY 2026, and we are driving towards further significant margin improvement and double-digit EPS growth also in 2027. With that, I would like to turn the call over back to Joe. Thank you very much.

[Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations at Bruker]

Thanks, Gerald. We will now begin the Q&A portion of the call. As a reminder, to allow everyone time for questions, we ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Operator?

[Operator]

We will now begin the question and answer session

[Operator]

To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Our first question will come from Puneet Souda of Leerink Partners. Please go ahead.

[Puneet Souda, Analyst at Leerink Partners]

Hi, guys. Frank, Gerald, thanks for taking the questions. First one is on the tariff refund treatment. Some of the peers are calling it as a passthrough with no net impact as these refunds are passed on to the customers. Just wanted to clarify on the treatment, and what is embedded in the tariff refund in the second half and for the full-year guide because you're reiterating it. It does appear that if we account for the refund, that it is a step down. If you could just clarify those points.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Hi, Puneet, it's Gerald. With respect to the first question, with respect to the tariff refunds, as you can guess, right, some of those tariff elements were charged to individual customers and that resulted in a contra revenue element, which is considered in our press release and the materials we provided. With respect to EPS, we've also indicated that that generated roughly 200 basis points of margin expansion in the quarter for the second quarter. As far as the second half goes, we've already factored that or baked that into our earlier guide numbers. We had just actually assumed that it would be more likely recovered in the third and the fourth quarters, not in the second quarter. We had a slightly earlier pull forward of that into the second quarter. Overall, that's already been baked into our original guidance model.

[Puneet Souda, Analyst at Leerink Partners]

Okay.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Hopefully that helps.

[Puneet Souda, Analyst at Leerink Partners]

Yeah. That's helpful. I'll follow up later, just maybe one quick one on semi. You're pointing to 50% order growth there, correct me if I'm wrong. In terms of the visibility into this and the timing of delivery, maybe, Frank, could you double-click? Obviously, this is an end market that is fairly actionable right now, just given the AI demand. What sort of sustainability that you're hearing from the customer end? Obviously these are somewhat separated from the leading AI companies that are driving that demand. Maybe just could you elaborate a bit on the timing of the installs and conversion into revenue?

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Yeah. No, the orders are remarkable for the first half and even more so in Q2. Of course, there'll be some fluctuations, if anything, it seems to be accelerating as one would expect, probably. We think, from what we read about others that are more deeply in semiconductor lithography or metrology, we think this is very sustainable this year and next. I think the debate is whether it's sustainable at that pace in 2028 and beyond. People just don't know yet. I would think that the visibility of the sector for the next six quarters plus seems excellent. That's not necessarily our own data. That's the general what we read from the industry. It is correct that many of these orders, as wonderful as they are, they're absolutely fantastic, they usually have an even longer delivery times than an average NMR or mass spec.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

That can easily be three to sometimes six to eight quarters. Visibility is very good because those customers they're almost like clockwork, right? They know when they need it for a new wafer fab and so on. Good visibility, but a little bit of a delayed gratification as some of that comes in in Q4. As Gerald said, I think we'll have a very strong Q4, quite a bit of this goes into next year in terms of revenue and P&L help, and even into 2028. Great sustainability, great visibility, slightly longer lead times.

[Puneet Souda, Analyst at Leerink Partners]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Michael Ryskin of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

[Michael Ryskin, Analyst at Bank of America]

Great. Thanks for the question. I want to just go back to 2Q performance briefly. I'm not sure if you want to talk ex-tariffs or including tariffs, but overall organic was just a little bit lighter than we would've expected, especially I think in BSI, we were looking at more something like mid-single digits, especially given the comps. You touched on academic and government, some other end markets. Again, a lot of that was expected and known. Is there anything unusual that happened in the quarter, any push outs or timing, or just sort of how to think about 2Q relative to your prior assumptions? Thanks.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Yeah, Mike, thank you. Other than about the combined effect of tariff refunds on revenue, which as you can see, was 60 basis points, and there is an additional 50 basis points effect from the currency Tailwind actually being about 50 basis points lower than had been expected because currency rates changed. That'll become more pronounced in Q3. In Q3, that currency tailwind on the revenues line is turning into a currency headwind. In Q3, it's not organic, but it takes out about $15 million in revenue independent of the revenue shifts that Gerald had explained. Back to Q2, and to your question. That combined effect was about 110 basis points of growth rate. Still on the light side on the revenues and on the organic revenues, and the number one and two and three reason are U.S. Aca/Gov.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Our U.S. Aca/Gov revenues in Q2, which is the result of weak orders in the second half of last year, were down more than $10 million, actually more than $15 million still year-over-year. As I said earlier, that just takes a couple of quarters, what we're seeing there right now. That was the biggest weakness in revenue in the second quarter.

[Michael Ryskin, Analyst at Bank of America]

Okay. If I could squeeze a follow-up, just Gerald, maybe for you. The margin ramp through the second half of the year. Obviously, the margins came in better in 2Q, but a lot of that was tariffs. If you could just walk us through the margin ramp in 3Q and the rest of the year. I know that's a big sticking point, would love to get some clarity on that. Thanks.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Yeah. I mentioned in my prepared remarks on the third quarter, we are expecting some shift of revenue, particularly related to semi, as Frank was just noting. Got strong orders in some of the revenue because of customer timing is moving to the fourth quarter. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, we did have a shift of what we expected from a tariff perspective out of the third quarter into the second. We think from a margin perspective, we think this is likely going to be somewhat down from what we initially expected, and on the revenue line, we think we're going to be sort of flat to slightly up from an organic perspective in the third quarter. Of course, we have a strong expected fourth quarter. Significant growth there. There's a bunch of factors related to that. There's the push-out I just described in semi.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

We have a much stronger expectation around, we have an ultra-high field coming into the fourth quarter. We have a number of mixed improvements that are much better in that we have a much higher volume. As I think you know, we get to a much better story in terms of our overall EPS growth in the fourth quarter. It's shaping up to be a larger fourth quarter than we had expected, likely in around the billion-dollar range. We've done this level of revenue growth in the past in the fourth quarter, I think we just can execute to those levels, and that's our expectation at the moment.

[Michael Ryskin, Analyst at Bank of America]

All right. Thanks.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Sure.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Tycho Peterson of Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[Tycho Peterson, Analyst at Jefferies]

Okay, thanks. Gerald, I'm going to actually pick up right there on margins. You mentioned mix. Is there some coming from the pricing actions you took last year coming out of backlog? How are you thinking about input costs here going forward? Also, are you backing off the 300 to 350 basis of core margin expansion? You had that in the deck last quarter. I didn't see you reiterate that. The incremental cost actions, how do we think about those flowing through into 2027?

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Okay. Well, there's a lot there. Let's start in the reverse order. On the cost actions, we're well on track. We're north of $140 million. Frank mentioned the adoption of a new operating structure for Bruker, and that's going to contribute some more additional savings beyond the $140 million we were planning for in 2026. That'll mostly hit in 2027. We're well on track with, I would say, strong cost saving actions even going forward beyond what we've already delivered. By the way, just from a cost savings perspective, we have delivered about $30 million in cost saving actions in the second quarter. We're right on track to where we expect it to be. With respect to the other questions, let's take one at a time here. I think our cadence with respect to the third quarter has just now shifted a little bit further into the fourth.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

As I said earlier, we have a strong setup in the fourth quarter, typically, even seasonally for Bruker, and it appears we're going to have another one of those as we march into the fourth quarter of 2026. The mix story, we are going to get some and continue to get some pricing benefit from adjustments we made in 2025 into 2026, including in the fourth quarter. The biggest piece, I'd say, for the fourth quarter performance is really going to be about volume. With the scale that we will deliver in the fourth quarter, I think the volume piece is going to be much more important actually than just the mix element. We do expect better mix with respect to semi. Our ultra-high field and some of our other key businesses are going to perform more strongly in the fourth quarter.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Based on what we see at this stage

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

I think, Tycho, to your operating margin question, if you even look at our slide 15, if we haven't been clear enough, our guidance continues to be based on an operating margin up 250 to 300 basis points reported, including a 50 basis points headwind, and detailed a little bit on our slide 15 on the outlook. That is unchanged.

[Tycho Peterson, Analyst at Jefferies]

On the cog side, Gerald, just inflationary, memory chips, tungsten, et cetera.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

From an energy cost perspective, we've already baked that into the guide earlier. We're not seeing, at least at this stage, any significant pressure there. At this point, we are having some supply chain challenges around componentry, mostly in the electronic side. Though at this stage, we're pretty comfortable that that's already been baked into our current guide.

[Tycho Peterson, Analyst at Jefferies]

Frank, just in terms of the order book, I appreciate the color on semis. Just can you maybe talk about elsewhere, academic and gov, maybe where you're feeling a little bit better? You talked last quarter about some signs of improvement there.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

The U.S. is still weak, as I said. We're seeing the encouraging NIH outlays, but they did not yet translate into significant Q2 orders. We will observe what's happening in Q3, of course the Q3 budget flush, which seems to be underway, could, for us, also mean decent Q4 U.S. ACA Gov bookings. We'll see. In Q2 already, the ACA Gov orders outside of the U.S., and particularly in the EU, was up more than 10%. In China, the orders were up more than 20% for ACA Gov in Q2. Remember, China was down on revenue, but then on orders it was up more than 20% in ACA Gov. That's that six months delay that you usually see at Bruker. ACA Gov, which I think that really supports the strength of our ASMS mass spec introduction.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

The new things we can do with our NMRs and of course even our other spatial biology and other tools or so. The portfolio I think is spot on. I think the innovation will have major impact. If we only had a little bit more U.S. funding, but maybe that's coming, and where we have funding, it has a big impact. That bodes well for ACA Gov competitiveness and market share gains, except it's starting right now in Europe and in APAC and China in particular.

[Tycho Peterson, Analyst at Jefferies]

Thank you.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

All right.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Subbu Nambi of Guggenheim. Please go ahead.

[Subbu Nambi, Analyst at Guggenheim]

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. Again, this will be at least the second year in a row where there is a timing dynamic challenge at the top line, and seemingly a push out to Q4 or maybe even 2027. First, can you explain steps you're taking to improve visibility? Second, at Doug's bus tour in May, you indicated that 4% was a good starting point for 2027 revenue growth expectation. Given the timing dynamics, if this revenue gets pushed out to 2027, would that be on top of that 4%? Thank you so much.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Subbu, very good questions. Yeah, what are we doing to increase visibility? Strong orders, right? We've had improving orders with better book-to-bill above one, and pretty good order growth in the scientific instruments segment, again in Q2, and now four quarters in a row. That is helping us with visibility. The visibility sometimes, however, is, and especially in these deep tech orders, for Q4 and for next year. Yeah, Q4 should have a nice mid-single digit organic growth rate. It's a little bit of a roller coaster with Q2 growth and Q4 organic growth and Q1 and Q3. Q1 was down, Q3 will be flat to slightly up.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

For the year, it's what we've been aiming for and what's in our guidance, namely the organic revenue growth of 1%-2%, which is a transition year, admittedly, because everybody comes from a year of 2025, where we were declining organically for all the factors that you know. Whether the Q4 growth rate is then what an indicative of our 2027 growth rate is too early to say. Give us a bit more time to see how bookings are, obviously in Q3, and yes, also in Q4, and then we'll be able to comment on that. We generally believe, of course, in a further organic growth acceleration in 2027 compared to 2026, but we cannot quantify that at this time.

[Subbu Nambi, Analyst at Guggenheim]

Thank you for that, Frank. Gerald, I know you kind of explained this on the call on margins. You previously indicated that even with flat top line growth, you would be able to meet margin targets in Q3. You pointed to progress, including facility rationalization, timing as support. Some of it was just structural. What changed? Is it just this product mix, and do you get this back at some point over the subsequent one or two quarters? Thank you so much.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

I don't think anything changed. Gerald was just talking about sequential. What happened is that we had assumed that we would get the tariff refunds maybe ratably over Q2, Q3, Q4, and remarkably, they came in rather quickly, mostly in June. That's why our margins, that's why we pointed it out in Q2, our operating margins and our EPS had a greater benefit than we had expected from the tariff refunds coming in faster. We'll still have some in Q3, Q4, but to a lesser extent. Q3 is still okay also on the margin side, but sequentially Q2, in a good way, we overshot a little bit primarily because of these tariff refunds that really came in the last half of June, quite honestly, faster than we had expected. We thought the government would slow walk them. They did not.

[Subbu Nambi, Analyst at Guggenheim]

Thank you so much.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Sure.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Luke Sergott of Barclays. Please go ahead.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Great, thanks. Just a quick one on the bookings, just to clear up. The bookings, were they down quarter-over-quarter? I'm just trying to get a level set of the overall dollar size that you guys had.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

You mean sequentially?

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Sequentially?

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Yeah. Were they down sequentially?

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Were-

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

No.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

No.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

They were up sequentially.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Okay.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

We're scrambling for the numbers, but they were up. Yeah.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Okay, great. Then as you think about the 4Q step-up here, in light of the strong bookings that you guys have had, how much of that 4Q step up of the $1 billion, roughly about that number, is already covered in your backlog?

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

It's obviously going to be more than $1 billion, right? You do the math.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Yeah

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

It's $1.02-$1.04 or something like that.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Yeah, roughly close to that.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

A lot of that is in our backlog now. Of course, we get some ongoing orders. I don't have a number right now, more than 50% for sure, but I don't have an exact number. Probably two-thirds, but again, sorry, I do not have. You've stumped us twice. We do not have exact numbers for both of your questions. Well, we will, however, when we call you back, because we just don't have it at our fingertips.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

All right. That's a bucket list to stump you twice, Frank, so I appreciate it. Thanks.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Yeah. Wow, Luke, you're on a roll. More questions. Luke, do you have any other question? I'm sorry to do this to you.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Oh, yeah. Just sticking on the guide here, as you guys think about the pickup in the business, but from a demand perspective, what needs to get better? Is it all on the academic side? Are you seeing continued momentum on the pharma? Anything there from a geography or end market that needs to actually improve for you to realize that back end, the 4Q guide?

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Well, quite honestly, almost everything is pretty good now. Applied markets, so food analysis, a little weak, but that's small for us anyway. U.S. Aca/Gov clearly is the one outlier. Even with U.S. Aca/Gov, even if it stayed weak, we'll take a growth step-up next year. If U.S. Aca/Gov came back, at least in a modest way, then obviously we take a bigger growth step-up next year. More and more areas, pharma has been great in the last two or three quarters, and again in Q2. Pharma, biopharma, the tools that we sell into that, TIMS systems, NMRs, the spatial biology, X-ray, it's really all quite good. Plus then what people sometimes call these idiosyncratic growth drivers because they're not. We call them deep tech now because they're just not all life science, but they're absolutely terrific.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

However, with this delayed gratification of them typically having nine months or longer delivery times, and that's driven by the customers, not by our capacity.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Great. Thank you.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Just on your other question around bookings growth sequentially, it is up, but I'd say it's low single digits up organically from the previous quarter.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Sequentially?

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Yes.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

That's the sequential answer. Yep. Okay.

[Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays]

Perfect. Thanks.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Yep.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

All right.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Casey Woodring of JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

[Casey Woodring, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Just to follow up on the deep tech piece, I appreciate the comments on semi, but you also flagged strong security detection and energy research orders in the first half of the year. I guess, is the strength that you're seeing there and the outperformance, was that something you had expected to begin the year or was that contemplated in the guide? Or is this kind of incrementally better than expected? And then how do you view the sustainability of both of those businesses in terms of demand as we look into 2027, especially on the security side?

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

On the security side, that was better than expected, but not hugely better. We expected strong security detection orders, but probably not greater than 20%. It was incrementally better than what we had expected. We have a very good product line there and differentiated products, plus security and defense concerns are not abating. That looks very sustainable. I think that business for as far as I can see or anybody can see, we would expect good growth trends there and with good margins in security detection that started a couple of years ago, and it's just been getting stronger. It's incrementally stronger than expected, but partly baked in. A lot of these orders are for things that you deliver to an airport sometime middle of next year. It doesn't all go into Q2, Q3, Q4.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Energy research that greatly exceeded, in terms of timings and amount, that greatly exceeded what we had expected. It's well over 100%. At that level, at that high growth rate, it's not sustainable. That business is very sustainable because some of these orders are literally for 2027, 2028, and some go into 2029. They'll have very good continuing revenue growth in the foreseeable future. They've been batting 800 or something instead of the usual batting 400, to use baseball terminology. They've just done really well, and their order success rate and win rate has been ahead of their own expectations, and we're delighted.

[Casey Woodring, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Got it. That's helpful. Then maybe just a quick follow-up. Europe grew 10%. Maybe just walk through what you're seeing across the businesses in that region. Thank you.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

In what region was that? I didn't catch it. Europe.

[Casey Woodring, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Europe. Yeah. Grew 10%. Just maybe unpack that performance. Thank you.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

I believe it was healthy on NMR, on other BioSpin tools as well, EPR and preclinical imaging. It was healthy on the mass spec offerings. I don't have it, but for all the other divisions. It was very healthy also on molecular diagnostics, our ELITechGroup business is just doing great, and they just keep growing and placing instruments ahead of business plan last year. They thought that might settle a little bit. It hasn't. First half placements in molecular diagnostics, the ELITechGroup business was ahead, well ahead of business plan, and that bodes very well as the consumables pull through, then builds on that larger installed base. Those were some of the highlights.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Can I just add, biopharma was solid as well in the quarter in Europe.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Right.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Yeah.

[Casey Woodring, Analyst at JPMorgan]

Thank you.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Sure.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Dan Arias of Stifel. Please go ahead.

[Dan Arias, Analyst at Stifel]

Hi, guys. Thank you. Frank, just to follow up on your comments around revenue recognition timing tied to the metrology business, what portion of the portfolio falls into that bucket of six-plus quarters when it comes to acceptance and just hitting the P&L? Just trying to get my hands around on pie charts, et cetera, within that business.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Okay. Hi, Dan. Thinking for a moment. The deep tech portfolio is maybe altogether is around 15% of our portfolio. Now, I cannot break out how much of that would have three or four quarters delivery time versus six and longer. That I can't break out readily.

[Dan Arias, Analyst at Stifel]

Okay. No problem.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

The deep tech portfolio with the longer delivery times of, let's say, three to six quarters, is about 15% of our portfolio.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

That does not include, in this case, 15%, we have not included Supercon Technologies. I guess you could also call that deep tech, but I didn't put that into that bucket. Here, I looked at instruments and systems and modules rather than superconducting wires. If you, yes, 15% is deep tech, semiconductor metrology, security detection, energy research. In this case, I did not bundle the Supercon solutions into that. Of course, they get these five to seven year framework contracts. That has a very different rhythm. About 15%, I think is the question that 15%, that's probably what you're looking for.

[Dan Arias, Analyst at Stifel]

Okay. Helpful. Then just maybe on input costs, which you guys referenced before. The market for helium is pretty tight again. How much is that a factor for your magnets business at this point? It's been material in the past, but I know that you guys have worked to have those machines be less helium intense than they used to be. Just trying to check in on whether that's something to think about. Thanks.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Yeah, no, it's something we think about, of course, there is even blockades and all, right? It's manageable because we've taken so many proactive steps in recent years. First of all, at our factories and final test sites that use a lot of helium, they really all have helium liquefaction. Sorry, it's the terminology. We capture all of it and we liquefy all of it, and I think we're at 80%, 90% that we liquefy. In addition, many of our newer magnets for the customers and also for our deliveries and installations have considerably lower helium consumption We've offered now for some years, we and also some other third-party vendors, helium gas capture and recompression, repurification, liquefaction solutions. More and more of the larger labs are equipped with that. I'm not saying it's pain-free, but it's been greatly mitigated.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

I'd say at the overall financial level, it's not something we need to highlight. It's manageable.

[Dan Arias, Analyst at Stifel]

Yeah, fair enough. Okay, thank you, Frank.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Sure thing.

[Operator]

The next question will come from Jack Meehan of Operon Research. Please go ahead.

[Jack Meehan, Analyst at Operon Research]

Good morning, everyone.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Hi, Jack.

[Jack Meehan, Analyst at Operon Research]

Wanted to dig a little bit more into COVID first. The microbiology business flat year-to-date. Can you just give us an update on what you're seeing in MALDI? Historically, that's been a pretty steady double-digit grower. Are there any regional or competitive dynamics you would call out?

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Hi, Jack. No, I don't think so. I think there's just also some quarterly fluctuations. They ended up getting some very large deals that they'll expect to deliver in Q3 and Q4, for instance, in Latin America and some other places. I think that's more of a fluctuation. Generally, that instruments business tends to be maybe now a mid, sometimes high single-digit grower, but the aftermarket for that business tends to be in the double-digit grower. I know that's also our expectation for the year.

[Jack Meehan, Analyst at Operon Research]

Great. Okay. Appreciate all the color in terms of the cost savings program cadence. Was wondering if you could humor us and just talk about how you feel about the trajectory on margins into 2027, how much of that we can assume just kind of builds into the next year versus areas you might be looking to reinvest.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Okay. Well, we're not ready for 2027 color or guidance. Yes, we very much intend to, again, grow our margins well above 100 basis points next year as well from our 2026 basis. Of course, we're looking for double digits, hopefully mid-teens EPS, non-GAAP EPS growth next year as well. As we had said, that won't end with 2027. Our goal is to drive back towards a 20% EBIT operating margin as quickly as possible more gradually move up to the low twenties in EBIT and mid-twenties in EBITDA.

[Jack Meehan, Analyst at Operon Research]

Great. Thank you, Frank.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Congrats on Operon.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

Yes. Congratulations, Jack.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Yeah. One more question.

[Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO at Bruker]

One more.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

One more question, yeah?

[Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations at Bruker]

Okay. Yeah. Operator, we can do one more question.

[Operator]

One more question? Okay. Our next question will come from Brendan Digan of Citi. Please go ahead.

[Analyst at Citi]

Hi, this is Abhirup on for Brendan. I just want to circle back on the 4Q growth. I kind of want to exactly understand what is baked in. We got the $20 million push out from 3Q, the ultra-high field that was originally supposed to be in 2Q got pushed to 4Q. Am I missing anything here? Can you remind us why exactly they got pushed out in the first place? What's the confidence level that it won't get pushed out again? Thank you.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Okay. The third item is, of course, that currency has turned this year with Q3 being the switchover point where a revenue currency tailwind turns into a revenue currency headwind. For the year, as you've seen, that's the FX part that we adjusted in our overall guidance. It's now a 0.5% tailwind, it used to be 1.5% tailwind, the biggest effect of that is in Q3 and in Q4. That's not organic, maybe it shouldn't be a concern, just saying. Q4 growth, yeah, mostly the $20 million in deliveries that I think are shifting from, that Gerald said are shifting from Q3 to Q4. It's almost all semi. That's simply when the sites are ready, when the customers are ready.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

Of course, it's a little different in the mix from what we had expected at the beginning of the year. We're a little bit more semi-heavy and faster-turning agile instruments. In the U.S., still weaker than we had expected because monies are coming out later. The ultra-high field that we are expecting in Q4 revenue, these things are never guaranteed because we have to install them. But I think our success ratio of delivery and success on installations is greater than 80%. Don't get hung up on that either. The NMR business always has the ability to make it up. If one slides out, they'll try to pull in something else. We're pretty comfortable with our strong Q4 guidance at this, or implied guidance for Q4 at this point. I think that's simply what happens every year.

[Frank Laukien, President and CEO at Bruker]

We try to smooth it out a little bit, during the year, some customer delays or sometimes technical delays come in. I think we'll be cool in Q4 should be a good quarter, Q3 should be okay. Sequentially, not as strong as what we had expected.

[Operator]

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Joe Kostka for any closing remarks.

[Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations at Bruker]

Thank you for joining us today. Bruker's leadership team looks forward to meeting with you at an event or speaking with you directly during the third quarter. Feel free to reach out to me to arrange a follow-up. Have a good day.

[Operator]

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations
• Frank Laukien, President and CEO
• Gerald Herman, EVP and CFO

Analysts

• Puneet Souda, Analyst at Leerink Partners
• Michael Ryskin, Analyst at Bank of America
• Tycho Peterson, Analyst at Jefferies
• Subbu Nambi, Analyst at Guggenheim
• Luke Sergott, Analyst at Barclays
• Casey Woodring, Analyst at JPMorgan
• Dan Arias, Analyst at Stifel
• Jack Meehan, Analyst at Operon Research
• Analyst at Citi