Bruker BioSciences Corp. (BRKR)

[MSC290]

Bruker Corp. says Q4 revenues will beat both 2008 and analysts' expectations

January 13, 2010 - by MassDevice staff

Fourth-quarter revenues at Bruker Corp. are likely to beat its year-ago numbers and the expectations of analysts, according to a preliminary count by the Billerica, Mass.-based manufacturer of laboratory equipment.

http://www.massdevice.com/news/bruker-corp-says-q4-revenues-will-beat-both-2008-and-analysts-expectations

Bruker Corp. (NSDQ:BRKR) likely generated more than $340 million in revenues during the fourth quarter, beating both year-ago levels and consensus analyst opinion for the period, according to company officials.

The preliminary revenue figures for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2009, were reported Jan. 13 as part of an investor presentation by Bruker executives at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. During their prepared remarks, CEO Frank Laukien and chief accounting officer Brian Monahan said the firm finished 2009 with a "healthy" order backlog and is beginning to see a gradual recovery in industrial orders.

The estimated $340 million in fourth-quarter revenues would mark a $25 million, or 8 percent, jump from the year-ending quarter at Bruker in 2008. It also would beat the $329.4 million average of revenue forecasts by analysts tracking the Billerica, Mass-based manufacturer of research and laboratory equipment.

The year-end bounce, however, failed to lift total revenues for 2009 past 2008. For the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2009, Bruker will likely record about $1.04 billion in revenues — or about $67 million below the $1.1 billion posted in 2008. The company will report its full financials in late February.

Laukien and Monahan also hoped to make news by announcing the imminent debut of its next-generation drug and explosive detection device. The detector builds on ion mobility spectrometry technology, which is able to detect trace amounts of materials by measuring the physical characteristics of gaseous ions and the speed they travel through a short tube to distinguish specific materials.

Neither story appeared to excite investors: Bruker stock was up 2 cents to $13.20 a share midway through Wednesday's market activity. The stock had slipped as low as $12.84 — a 3 percent decline — earlier in the day before recovering.