ブルカー（BRKR）2026年第3四半期決算説明会：マージン拡大と受注拡大

要点

• ブルカー・コーポレーションが発表した2026年第3四半期の売上高は前年同期比1.6%増の8億7,400万ドルとなった。これには0.7%のオーガニック成長と0.6%の為替の逆風が含まれる。
• Non-GAAP営業利益率は、コスト削減策や良好な製品構成に支えられ、400ベーシスポイント拡大して16.3%となった。Non-GAAP希薄化後EPSは24.4%増の0.56ドルとなった。
• ブルカー・サイエンティフィック・インスツルメンツ（BSI）は、5四半期連続でBBレシオ（受注出荷比率）が1を上回った。年初来のBSIオーガニック受注高および受注残高は、ともに1桁台半ばの増加となった。
• 複数の主要市場で需要が改善した。米国の学術および政府機関市場における第3四半期のオーガニック受注は2桁増となったほか、中国のBSIオーガニック受注は第3四半期および年初来の双方で20%超増加した。
• 半導体計測の受注は、ロジックファウンドリ、高帯域幅メモリ（HBM）、先端パッケージング関連の需要に牽引され、年初来のオーガニックベースで30%超増加した。経営陣は、これら受注の大半が2027年度に売上高として計上され、一部は2028年度に持ち越されると予想している。
• ブルカーは2026年度通期のオーガニック売上高成長率およびNon-GAAP EPSガイダンスを再確認した。また経営陣は、2027年における2桁台のEPS成長と100ベーシスポイント超の営業利益率拡大を引き続き目標としている。

主要財務データ

2026年最初の9カ月間（第3四半期累計）の売上高は3.1%増の25億4,000万ドルとなった一方、オーガニック売上高はほぼ横ばいとなった。ブルカーによると、年初来のNon-GAAP売上総利益率、営業利益率、EPSはいずれも前年から改善した。

第3四半期のGAAP業績には、米国の学術および政府機関の研究環境の低迷を反映し、ブルカー・スペーシャル・バイオロジーに関連する約1億7,500万ドルの非現金性ののれん減損損失が含まれた。

事業および営業動向

第3四半期のBSI装置売上高は、以前公表された半導体計測装置の出荷遅延を主因として、オーガニックベースで1桁台半ばの減少となった。アフターマーケット売上高はオーガニックベースで1桁台後半の増加となった。

地域別のオーガニック売上高は、欧州で1桁台前半の増加、米州でほぼ横ばい、アジア太平洋地域で1桁台半ばの減少となった。中国におけるBSI売上高は2桁台前半の伸びを示し、EMEA売上高は30%超増加した。

為替中立ベースでの年初来セグメント別業績は以下の通り。

• バイオシステムズ・グループ：売上高は12億ドルで、1桁台前半の増加となった。バイオ製薬、トランスレーショナルリサーチ、赤外・ラマン分光分析、質量分析での成長が、学術・政府機関向けの低迷やNMR需要の軟化によって一部相殺された。
• 微生物・感染症診断：売上高は3億9,600万ドルで、主に分子診断の成長により1桁台前半の増加となった。経営陣はこの事業を長期的に1桁台後半の成長分野と見込んでいる。
• ブルカー・ナノ：売上高は7億7,000万ドルで、1桁台前半の減少となった。半導体計測およびバイオ製薬の成長が、学術、政府機関、産業向け需要の軟調さによって相殺された。
• BEST：内部取引消去後の売上高は、研究用機器および超電導体に支えられ8.3%増加した。経営陣は、核融合研究、高エネルギー物理学、先端光源、ならびにASML露光装置サプライチェーンの一部からの需要を強調した。

ブルカーはまた、創薬および医薬品開発向けのヒト化生体模倣システム（Organ-on-a-Chip）機能を追加するMIMETASの過半数株式取得についても強調した。同社は、このプラットフォームがマルチオミクス、空間生物学、構造生物学、前臨床イメージングの各ソリューションを補完すると期待している。

経営陣によるガイダンス

2026年第4四半期について、経営陣はオーガニック売上高成長率が1桁台半ばの低水準になると見込んでいる。また、販売数量の増加、良好な製品構成、コスト削減の累積効果に支えられ、営業利益率とEPSが前四半期比および前年同期比で大幅に伸長すると予想している。

ブルカーは、年換算で1億4,000万ドルのコスト削減ランレート目標の達成に向けて順調に進んでいると述べた。第4四半期の製品構成は超高磁場システムおよび半導体関連の活発化による恩恵を受けると見込まれるが、計画の確実な実行が引き続き重要となる。

2027年について、経営陣は正式なガイダンスを発表していない。暫定的な見通しの枠組みとしては、少なくとも1桁台半ば低めのオーガニック売上高成長率、2桁台のEPS成長率、および100ベーシスポイント超の追加的な営業利益率拡大を見込んでいる。

リスクと注目点

• 経営陣は主要なファブ（半導体製造工場）プロジェクトは概ね良好に管理されていると述べたものの、半導体計測装置の出荷時期は1〜2四半期前後する可能性がある。
• 顧客側の施設受け入れ態勢の進捗により、四半期ごとの出荷時期にプラスマイナス約2,000万ドルの不確実性が生じる。
• 米国の学術および政府機関向け需要は前年の低水準からの反動で改善しつつあるが、経営陣は顧客の信頼感が依然として限定的であり、連邦政府の資金配分パターンの予測が難しくなっていると述べた。
• 中国での受注は第3四半期を通じて好調を維持したが、経営陣は今後数四半期を超える先の需要を見極めるのは困難であると注意を促した。
• バイオ製薬および創薬の設備投資は、四半期ごとの変動を受けやすい状況が続いている。
• 第3四半期ののれん減損は、ブルカー・スペーシャル・バイオロジーにおける米国の学術・政府機関市場の継続的な低迷を浮き彫りにしている。

アナリスト質疑応答の要点

• 第4四半期の利益率見通し：経営陣は、第3四半期の利益率実績、累積的なコスト削減、受注残の可視性向上、良好な製品構成により、第4四半期の利益率拡大におけるリスクは大幅に低減されたと述べた。残る焦点は売上高の計上（エグゼキューション）にある。
• 受注から売上への転換：ブルカーは、BSIの売上好転の遅れについて、主に半導体関連の出荷繰り延べや、NMRおよび関連する前臨床MRIシステムの売上転換サイクルの長期化によるものとした。経営陣は、第4四半期にBSIのオーガニック売上高が増加へ転じると見込んでいる。
• 人工知能（AI）関連の需要：現在のAI関連需要は、半導体計測およびASMLサプライチェーンの一部で最も顕著に現れている。経営陣はまた、AIを活用した創薬が、長期的にChemspeedの自動化、SciYソフトウェア、ならびにブルカーのプロテオミクス、糖鎖生物学、空間生物学、構造生物学プラットフォームの需要を支えると期待している。
• 半導体事業の見通し：経営陣は、現在の受注残が売上化するにつれて、2027年に半導体計測の売上高成長が加速すると見込んでいる。受注の大半は2027年に売上計上される見込みであり、一部は2028年に持ち越される。
• 米国の学術・政府機関需要の回復：経営陣は、第3四半期の受注が前年の低水準からの反動による恩恵を一部受けたほか、繰り延べ需要や最新の研究ツールの必要性も受注を後押ししたと述べた。米国立衛生研究所（NIH）の予算消化は、2026年第4四半期および2027年第1四半期の受注により大きな影響を与えると予想されている。
• 資本配分：純レバレッジ比率が2.4倍となり従来の目標を下回ったことで、ブルカーには買収余力が増している。経営陣は規律を維持し、EPS向上につながる案件を優先すると述べた。

決算説明会 文字起こし全文

決算説明会の完全なトランスクリプト

経営陣による説明

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Bruker Corporation Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to Joe Kostka, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Joe Kostka

Good morning. I would like to welcome everyone to Bruker Corporation's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Joe Kostka, and I'm 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 Presentations 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. Before we begin, I would like to reference Bruker's safe harbor statement, which is shown on Slide 2 of the presentation. 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 31, 2025, as updated by our other SEC filings, which are available on our website and on the SEC's website. Also, please note that the following information is based on current business conditions and on our outlook as of today, November 4, 2026. 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 fourth quarter and full year 2026 financial results expected in February 2027.

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 third quarter of 2026 in more detail and comment on our full year 2026 financial outlook. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Bruker's CEO, Frank Laukien.

Frank Laukien

Thank you, Joe. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on today's third quarter '26 earnings call. Bruker continues to drive significant advances in post-genomic disease biology solutions and drug discovery from proteoforms to glycobiology and from functional protein interactions to spatial biology. These foundational advances in disease biology, together with strong growth drivers in specialty infectious disease diagnostics and in our deep tech and semiconductor metrology franchise are expected to lead to significant revenue growth acceleration and further margin expansion.

Bruker's positive bookings trends continued in the fifth consecutive quarter of Bruker Scientific Instruments or BSI book-to-bill greater than 1 as we see increasing strength in most of our end markets, and I will highlight 3 areas in particular. First, U.S. Acad/Gov. In the third quarter, our BSI organic bookings in the U.S. Acad/Gov market grew in the double-digit percentage year-over-year. This was the first quarter with year-over-year bookings growth in U.S. Acad/Gov since the NIH funding disruption in 2025.

The prior year comparison was a weak one, but this is nonetheless encouraging. And by the way, we also expect year-over-year organic bookings growth in U.S. Acad/Gov in the fourth quarter. One could speculate that last night's blue wave in the midterms could also bode well for U.S. Acad/Gov funding in fiscal '27 and beyond. Second, China. BSI organic bookings in China were up over 20%, both in the third quarter and year-to-date. This consists of broad-based demand strength as almost all of our BSI end market orders in China grew nicely.

Third, year-to-date, we've seen greater than 30% organic bookings growth in BSI semicon metrology markets in the quarter. This robust order growth is being fueled by the AI megatrend, which requires our metrology solutions for logic chip foundries, high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging. While the lead times on these orders are longer than most of our life science tools, we expect to see these semi orders convert into revenue mostly in fiscal year '27 and some in fiscal year '28.

Speaking of AI, artificial intelligence, in August, we started a strategic collaboration with and we did a minority investment in Atinary Technologies, a pioneer of self-driving labs and Agentic AI-driven chemistry R&D. Atinary integrates our Chemspeed lab automation and Bruker analytical measurement instruments into its Agentic AI workflows. The Atinary lab in Boston includes Chemspeed robotics and Bruker benchtop NMR for small molecule synthesis and catalysis in pharmaceutical R&D and process development. All right. Let's dive into the numbers.

Let's turn to Slide 4 now for the P&L performance in the third quarter, where we achieved significant margin expansion and non-GAAP EPS growth driven by our focus on cost discipline and execution. Our third quarter '26 reported revenues of $874 million increased 1.6% year-over-year with organic growth of 0.7%. Our third quarter '26 non-GAAP gross and operating margins were 51.3% and 16.3%, respectively, both up significantly year-over-year. Our Q3 '26 diluted non-GAAP EPS was $0.56, up 24.4% from Q3 '25. Moving to Slide 5. Our year-to-date 9 months Q3 '26 revenues increased by 3.1% to $2.54 billion with organic revenue essentially flat.

Our year-to-date non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin and EPS were all up nicely year-over-year, and their year-to-date performance is summarized on Slide 5. As Gerald will explain in more detail shortly, in Q3 and year-to-date, our free cash flow also has improved considerably, and we have made excellent progress with deleveraging. Please turn to Slides 6 and 7 now, where we highlight the year-to-date third quarter performance of our now reorganized 3 Scientific Instruments groups and of our BEST segment, all on a constant currency or CER, and year-over-year basis. Year-to-date, the BioSystems Group revenue was $1.2 billion, up low single-digit percentage year-over-year in CER.

Strength in biopharma and translational research was partially offset by weakness in Acad/Gov. BioSystems saw strong CER growth in IR and Raman spectroscopy and in mass spectrometry, driven in part by the TOFWERK acquisition, which was partially offset by softness in NMR. Year-to-date 2026, our newly elevated Microbiology and Infection Diagnostics group had revenues of $396 million, which increased in the low single-digit percentage, driven primarily by robust molecular diagnostics revenue growth. Turning to Slide 7. Year-to-date, Bruker Nano revenue was $770 million with a low single-digit percentage CER decline.

Robust year-to-date growth in semi metrology and biopharma was offset by weakness in Acad/Gov and industrial. Semi revenues were down double digits in the third quarter, primarily driven by our previously communicated pushouts of semi metrology instruments from the third quarter. We have been very explicit about that in our Q2 earnings call when Gerald gave Q4 color that we expected the $20 million pushout from Q3 in semicon metrology. Finally, year-to-date BEST revenues were up 8.3% in CER, net of intercompany eliminations with strong growth in research instruments or RI and solid growth also in superconductors.

Right. Moving to Slide 8. We highlight our recent acquisition of MIMETAS, a leading humanized Organ-on-a-Chip or NAM, platform. NAM stands for new approach methodology. It's a commonly used term in the industry and also by the FDA. I'll let you read some of the background on MIMETAS. I think it's a reading slide rather than me going to every bullet. But I think it is very important to get the higher-level perspective that in addition to multiomics and spatial, and structural biology, and AI augmented drug discovery, one of the pain points and one of the reasons for the failure rates of so many drugs.

When they get translated from mouse models or animal models to humans, are toxicities, our off-target toxicities that are unique to humanized models and human physiology. And MIMETAS with its humanized organs on a chip, which can be nicely automated, which have many disease models and are poised for very significant double-digit growth with high gross margins, we think are probably the best type of systems of this type on the market, which is why after extensive research on that market, we acquired a majority in MIMETAS. We're very excited, and we think this will complement our multiomics, spatial biology, structural biology in drug discovery, in particular, drug discovery and development in a very important way.

It's a high priority for just about every biopharma company. Right. On Slide 9, we touch on a few recent advances in functional proteomics with novel workflows for drug discovery and disease biology launched at the recent International HUPO Conference in Singapore. Again, I will not read every bullet, but we had very significant further advances in this MultiDIA method on our timsTOF for bottom-up proteomics, for plasma proteomics, single-cell proteomics, where we see in net-net, more peptides and protein groups and also more isoforms, sequence variants and all the other things that traditional MS-based methods or the affinity method simply cannot see, but they're functionally very important for better AI frontier models or better drug discovery.

On the right-hand side, our timsOmni continues to be a very successful system in the market with significant orders. And here are new workflows that are really very, very important, one in glycobiology, where with our unique trapped electron-based fragmentation. I won't go into technical details, but it's really crucial to do this at scale, at speed and in very sensitive manners. And glycobiology is tremendously important, but has been traditionally very difficult to study.

Moreover, oligonucleotides and native RNA analysis is another important area, whether mRNA is a drug target or a potential RNA drug and the instrument can perform outstanding workflows now in this area as well. We think this bodes well for further rapid adoption in academic medical centers, which have good funding as well as in pharma companies and biotech companies. All right. That about does it for me. In summary, the third quarter, we achieved significant margin expansion and non-GAAP EPS growth and our positive booking trends continued.

Our BSI organic bookings and BSI backlog are both up mid-single-digit percentage year-to-date. This helps derisk our fourth quarter and sets us up for meaningful further performance improvements and growth acceleration in fiscal year '27 and beyond. Let me turn the call over to our CFO, Gerald.

Gerald Herman

Thank you, Frank, and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. I'm pleased to provide more detail on Bruker's third quarter 2026 financial performance, starting on Slide 11. In the third quarter of '26, our results were roughly in line with our expectations on the top line, but meaningfully ahead of our expectations on margins and EPS, largely confirming the benefit of our cost-saving actions together with a positive mix in the quarter. In the third quarter of 2026, Bruker's reported revenue increased 1.6% to $874 million, with organic revenue growth of 0.7%.

Acquisitions added 1.7% to our top line, while foreign exchange was a 0.6% headwind, resulting in constant exchange rate revenue growth of 2.4% year-over-year. BSI organic revenue declined 0.4% in the third quarter '26 with BSI instrument revenue down mid-single digits and BSI aftermarket revenue up high single digits organically year-over-year. The organic decline in the third quarter '26 instruments revenue was primarily driven by the previously communicated pushouts of semi metrology instruments from the third quarter. Geographically, on a year-over-year organic basis, in the third quarter of 2026, European revenue was up low single digits percentage.

Americas revenue was roughly flat, while Asia Pacific revenue declined in the mid-single-digit percentage. BSI revenues in China were up in the low double-digit percentage in the third quarter of 2026. And for our EMEA region, revenue was up over 30%. Our BSI segment order book performance was up organically in the low single-digit percentage year-over-year, driven by strong growth in semi and double-digit growth in U.S. academic government research and China academic government research, partially offset by declines in European and Japanese Acad/Gov and biopharma in the third quarter, mostly due to quarterly fluctuations.

Third quarter 2026 non-GAAP gross margin increased 120 basis points to 51.3%. Non-GAAP operating margin was 16.3%, up 400 basis points, driven by our cost-saving actions and favorable mix. We are on track to achieve our $140 million annualized run rate cost-out target. On a non-GAAP basis, third quarter 2026 diluted EPS was $0.56, up 24.4% from the $0.45 we posted in the third quarter of '25. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 28.4% compared to 24.4% in the third quarter of '25 due to unfavorable jurisdictional mix in the third quarter of '26.

On a GAAP basis, we reported a diluted loss per share of $0.81 compared to a GAAP diluted loss per share of $0.41 in the third quarter of '25. Our third quarter '26 GAAP results include a noncash goodwill impairment charge of approximately $175 million related to Bruker Spatial Biology, where U.S. academic and government research market conditions have been weak. Weighted average diluted shares outstanding in the third quarter of 2026 were 153.2 million, an increase of 1.2 million shares from the third quarter of '25. Slide 12 shows Bruker's performance for the year-to-date 2026, which are similar drivers to the third quarter. Turning to Slide 13.

In the third quarter of 2026, free cash flow improved $151 million year-over-year, driven mainly by higher net income, excluding the noncash goodwill impairment and improved working capital. We continued our debt deleveraging in the quarter, paying down an additional $58 million in debt. Our net leverage ratio was 2.4x as of September 30, 2026, and now is below our previously communicated leverage target. Turning now to Slide 15. We're updating our fiscal year '26 financial outlook for currency and reconfirming our prior fiscal year '26 organic revenue growth and non-GAAP EPS guidance.

We now expect reported revenue of $3.52 billion to $3.56 billion, representing reported growth of 2.5% to 3.5% compared to fiscal year '25. We continue to expect organic revenue growth of 1% to 2% and contribution from acquisitions of approximately 1.5%. We now expect currency to be approximately neutral to reported revenue for fiscal year '26 after the recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar. We continue to expect non-GAAP operating margin expansion of 250 to 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 fiscal year '26 in a range of $2.10 to $2.15, up 15% to 17% compared to fiscal year '25.

Other guidance assumptions are listed on the slide. Our fiscal year '26 ranges have been updated for foreign currency rates as of September 30, 2026. Now some color on the fourth quarter of 2026. We expect fourth quarter organic revenue to grow in the lower mid-single-digits percentage year-over-year. We expect meaningful sequential and year-over-year increases in operating margin and EPS due to higher volume and favorable mix in the fourth quarter as well as due to the compounding effects from our cost-saving actions.

To wrap up, third quarter 2026 was a solid quarter for Bruker, giving us improved confidence in the market recovery in many key market segments and geographies. Our cost-saving actions are well on track, positioning us for significant margin and profitability improvements in fiscal year '26, and we're driving towards further margin improvement and double-digit EPS growth in 2027. With that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Joe. Thank you very much.

Joe Kostka

Thanks, Gerald. We will now begin the Q&A portion of the call. [Operator Instructions]. Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Puneet Souda from Leerink Partners.

質疑応答

Puneet Souda

First one on margin improvement, margin expansion this quarter. Great to see that. But just wondering in terms of factors that give you confidence on the step-up in the fourth quarter, it is still sizable 500 bps sequential. So just wondering in terms of cost savings that you're seeing and recognizing in the fourth quarter, any gigahertz magnets that are landing in the fourth quarter, Acad/Gov and other AI and the order -- $20 million order shift that you talked about as well. What are some of the drivers that give you confidence on that step-up in margin?

Frank Laukien

Puneet, thank you for your questions. I think -- I mean, I think we've significantly derisked the fourth quarter. By my math, we do no longer need a 500 bps sequential step-up. That was, I think, previously correct. But now we need to step up from where we were at 16.3%. And I think we need to step up to the high teens, and that seems much more achievable given that it's likely to be about $1 billion in revenue quarter. And in the recent U.S. order pickup probably mostly will benefit us in '27. China Acad/Gov orders have picked up earlier, and they would begin to help us in Q4.

The semi shift, some of that goes into Q4, some of that may go into early '27, but that's all good. So I think the margin and the revenue margin, EPS ramp into Q4, I mean, it's never without risk, but we think what we're saying about the color there is prudent at this point in time. And -- but I think we -- this is much significantly derisked with another strong Q3 and then obviously, the margin performance and EPS performance in particular makes this much more achievable.

Puneet Souda

And then on AI, Frank, obviously, an important theme for Bruker. You levered to it in multiple ways, uniquely on the semi side. And obviously, the AI biodiscovery as that starts to take shape as companies are investing more in discovery and platforms there. Can you maybe -- is there a way to sort of quantify the contribution today from AI? And then how are you thinking about 2027 here for AI overall across the enterprise?

Frank Laukien

Yes, two pieces to that. As you pointed out, the semiconductor metrology and within our BEST segment at RI, also some contribution to the ASML supply chain ultimately, although that's still smaller because that goes into the latest and greatest tools that they are beginning to now get more adopted. That has been quantified. I think we've -- you've written notes on that. Others have been written notes on that, so I won't jump into that. And that continues to, I believe, the year-to-date order growth in that area has been 30% or higher year-to-date. And again, it also was really strong in Q3 in order performance. So that's just humming along and obviously, one of the very strong growth drivers in our deep tech -- broader deep tech area, but particularly in the semi metrology and a little bit in the lithography supply chain.

BioDiscovery, our bio and chemistry discovery and materials discovery benefits our Chemspeed automation orders, benefits our SciY software. And more and more, I think it will also benefit those deep biology 2.0 tools, whatever you want to call it, that from bottom-up proteomics, of course, to isoforms to incomplete proteoforms, top-down glycobiology, spatial biology and structural biology, I think, are all going -- there's an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal today where, yes, taking more shots on goal, meaning on drug targets is helping a little bit, but it may not lead to the expected breakthroughs of curing all diseases anytime soon, which is optimistic anyway.

But I think the deeper -- unless you feed these frontier models with much, much deeper insights into disease biology and drug targets and mechanisms of action, we're not going to make all that much progress. So there, I think, maybe not uniquely, but I mean, more than any other company, I think we're positioned for really providing these deep disease biology tools.

We think that will -- that's still not moving the needle so far, but I think that's quite promising for '27, and I think we could be seeing a very significant ramp-up in the next few years where people begin to move from scratching the surface at higher with more shots on goal, which is after sort of the initial approach, which is fine to, I think, the much more impactful, deeper biology for which you need our tools. That was a long answer, I apologize.

Operator

Our next question comes from Tycho Peterson from Jefferies.

Tycho Peterson

Frank, obviously, a lot of improvement here in end markets. I'm wondering if you could just kind of give us a state of the various end markets. You've obviously talked a lot about academic picking up. How much of what you're seeing here and now you think is durable? And then what's going on in pharma? It seems like pharma orders were down both in the EU and I don't know in the U.S. as well, but maybe touch on that as well.

Frank Laukien

Yes. Glad to, Tycho. Thank you. So Acad/Gov, nice to see a little bit of order growth in the U.S. Importantly, also in China that's been going on throughout year-to-date, so for several quarters. A little bit -- Japan is relatively weak. It's a small part of the total demand now, but it is weak. And Europe was quite very strong in Q3 of last year, '25 and was a bit weaker in Acad/Gov than in Q3 of '26. And so that's how -- it's not all -- we're not firing on all cylinders, but more and more. And year-to-date, I think are the better trends. Any given quarter, these things can fluctuate and they do. But year-to-date, I think the overall, as we said, mid-single-digit BSI backlog and bookings, I think that kind of is a good predictor of where we might end up in revenue growth -- organic revenue growth next year.

Pharma, biopharma also has some fluctuations. We -- I think we had an excellent Q4. Q2, Q3, a bit weaker. Q1 was actually not that strong. But overall, the pharma, biopharma trends are good. They're not as strong as those who are more in the regulated space of pharma. They see stronger growth as we've seen yesterday, for instance. But I'm encouraged that in the more CapEx-heavy drug discovery front end, the trends are good, although there's some quarterly fluctuations also for automation and software tools.

Tycho Peterson

Okay. That's helpful. And then what's your latest framing on '27, given mid-single-digit bookings growth here, BSI book-to-bill above 1. Obviously, the incremental cost savings look like they'll continue to flow through here. So can you just provide any updated thoughts on '27 at this point?

Frank Laukien

Well, not really beyond what we've said already. I mean, as you know, when we report probably in early February, report Q4, we'll give guidance. But I mean, having -- we put our neck out and feel pretty comfortable and are very committed to double-digit EPS growth. But refining that further, it's too early right now. We are seeking more than 100 bps of further operating margin expansion, hopefully, more than just 100, not 300 or 250, like 300 this year, but another meaningful step.

And from this year, still relatively flattish because we for us, it's always that orders kick in 6 to 9 months before the revenue growth kicks in, as you've seen. And then we have this very strong deep tech orders, which have even longer conversion times, but come in at very good margins and with very good order trends. So anticipating that we will accelerate in organic bookings growth -- sorry, in organic revenue growth from this year is easy because it's going to be an easy comparison. But nonetheless, that should bring us to the -- at least to the lower mid-single digits.

Tycho Peterson

Okay. And then just quickly on margins before I hop off. Mix contributed 90 bps this quarter. Can you just unpack what -- where you're seeing the biggest mix benefits?

Gerald Herman

Yes. Tycho, it's Gerald. I'd say we saw some significant mix improvement, both in our NMR business as well as in our optical microscopy business in the quarter, and that's better than what we actually anticipated. Clearly, we still have good solid performance in a number of other areas, but I'd highlight those 2.

Operator

Our next question comes from Luke Sergott from Barclays.

Luke Sergott

Just wanted to follow up on the margin side. So big margin step up here and came in well above what anybody was looking for. And so you talked about derisking that 4Q. So I just wanted to know like, is there a pull forward on any of the cost outs? Or is this just -- you talked about on Tycho's question, the 90 bps mix. Just anything there from a conservatism or what's embedded in 4Q because your revenue dollar didn't change. So just trying to figure out like what the difference is there versus your prior expectations for a big 4Q step-up.

Gerald Herman

Yes. Again, Luke, it's Gerald. I would just say with respect to the margin performance for the third quarter, I mentioned we had 2 more favorable elements on the mix side. On the cost savings side, recall that actually most of our cost-saving actions didn't kick in really until the fourth quarter of 2025 historically. So we have quite a big step-up in cost saving improvements in the third quarter of 2026. And that's part of the more significant element here. But I would say mix was clearly better than we had expected to see even back in Q2.

Luke Sergott

Okay. And then I guess on the BEST beat that you guys had, continued strength here all year long. Can you talk a little bit more about what is driving this? Is like some of the newer energy technologies like fusion and -- or is this -- just trying to think about how much is like just pricing given the supply chain constraints, et cetera.

Frank Laukien

Yes. Good question. So I should observe that BEST was pretty weak last year. So it also sometimes a weaker comparison helps. But nonetheless, we're very pleased with the BEST order trends, which are even stronger, and we don't break those out because some of our MRI superconducting wire orders, they come sort of every 5 years and big framework agreements. But very, very strong order growth in the research instrument side, and that is driven to your question, by ITER and fusion orders that ultimately will go towards fusion energy, certainly fusion energy range research.

There are other high-energy physics and advanced light sources and free-electron lasers and similar projects around the world where we just have pretty unique capabilities and unique technology that really play a role and where the order growth also has been very, very strong. As I said, they're also plugged in a little bit into this ASML lithography supply chain in a small way, but being designed in is a good thing. It's where you want to be into the newest tools.

So we're just delighted with that segment. And it also has seen nice margin improvement. So it's not just the growth. And -- but the bookings growth is even higher there, even though the revenue growth is really quite nice. So it's an exciting part of our normally less appreciated deep tech in addition to the deep tech semiconductor metrology that we've quantified and that you have had -- we've all had more interest and insights in this year.

Operator

Our next question comes from Subbu Nambi from Guggenheim.

Subhalaxmi Nambi

As you think about 2027 framing, given all the events that have happened in the last 2 years, how are you approaching the philosophy when rolling all the end markets up? Should we expect a bit more conservatism next year given the jump-off point? Or is it full steam ahead with some of the higher-growth businesses like semis? Just any color on a prudent start point would be helpful.

Frank Laukien

Super good questions. Obviously, guidance coming then in early February. I'm afraid I might repeat a little bit what I said to Tycho earlier. Yes, there is upside, but I think it's also -- we've all been burned by unexpected events in '25 in particular, right? And still things are -- there's still a lot of areas are very dynamic and timing is hard to call. But I think looking for double-digit EPS growth, of course, you'll want to know how much double digit. We're not prepared to say that yet and greater than 100 bps margin expansion.

And I think this lower mid-single-digit organic growth range seems reasonable to us and not overly conservative. So I think we're really going to -- I think we get to the more typical Bruker 200, 300 bps above market. That's more of a '28 or '29 thing, hopefully, '28. '27, I think, will still be a transition year, but with very significant organic growth improvement compared to this year.

Subhalaxmi Nambi

A follow-up. Last quarter, you indicated 2/3 of the fourth quarter revenue was covered by backlog. Are you almost fully derisked at this point?

Gerald Herman

I'd say pretty much at this stage. We have pretty clear visibility into the backlog for the fourth quarter, and we're -- we still have execution-related issues. But other than that, I would say pretty much.

Frank Laukien

Yes. I mean you have about 60% instruments revenue, 40% consumables. Obviously, on consumables and services, you have limited backlog. And on the instruments, you tend to have the backlog and then it depends on sometimes issues with suppliers that -- and then also more typically customer site readiness, which, I mean, at any given quarter, this is not a fourth quarter thing at any given quarter, it could be -- you kind of -- even if you execute perfectly just from the customers, it's sort of a plus/minus $20 million uncertainty that you have because you don't know exactly when they'll be ready to take shipments.

But again, all in, I think we feel, obviously, it was not excessive, but there was more risk in our Q4 ramp previously. And now it's not a shoe in. It never is. It's a big quarter, but it seems achievable.

Operator

Our next question comes from Lu Li from Bank of America.

Lu Li

Maybe on the first one on the margin. I guess like for 4Q, do you still expect to see kind of favorable mix impact? And then maybe can you comment on kind of the cost inflation that you've seen in the quarter and then for 4Q as well?

Gerald Herman

Yes. It's Gerald. With respect to the fourth quarter, we're pretty comfortable now where we stand. As I said earlier, we have already put in place cost-saving actions that will impact the fourth quarter, and I think that's going to be favorable. And when we look at the rest of our mix, we are expecting an ultra-high field system into the mix, that will also help our overall picture.

We do have a stronger performance also in the semi space, which also will help our mix. So I think fundamentally, the fourth quarter pieces look pretty solid, I think, for us at this stage. And as I said earlier, cost-saving actions are already in place. So more about execution on the revenue piece at this stage.

Frank Laukien

Cost saving actions are accumulating throughout the year. It's kind of a compounding effect and should be even more also visible in Q4 and certainly was very visible in Q3.

Lu Li

Got it. And then second question, probably on China. So definitely year-to-date has been pretty strong performance. It seems like the money has like falling into kind of the orders. I'm wondering kind of like looking forward in 2027, do you still expect kind of a pretty like durable bookings growth? And maybe just like what do you hear from the customer on the market?

Frank Laukien

China is really revenue earlier in the year was still going down because of weak orders in '25. I think that has reversed in Q3 with some broad revenue growth. And then year-to-date in China, that's exactly -- you're exactly right, our order growth in China for BSI it has been really quite good. And we don't expect that -- we expect that to continue in Q4. It's hard to read China beyond a few quarters. China, sometimes we say, well, you've got to finish the quarter to know. I think we have reasonable confidence that Q4, the strength will continue. Hopefully, that can be extrapolated into '27.

We have no reason to believe otherwise, but it's just also more difficult to read China over 1- or 2-year periods. But we're encouraged this year, the trends have been -- order trends have been very good, expected to be continued in Q4. And by the way, also in China, Acad/Gov, it was not only U.S. Acad/Gov that was weak, but also China Acad/Gov and that has really turned in orders already earlier this year and continued in Q3.

Operator

Our next question comes from Doug Schenkel from UBS.

Douglas Schenkel

I have one on BSI, and then I'm going to ask another 2027 question. So BSI book-to-bill has now exceeded 1 for 5 consecutive quarters, yet BSI organic revenue remains under pressure. I think you were down 1% year-to-date. With U.S. academic bookings now double-digit positive, China above 20% and semiconductor metrology above 30% year-to-date, why aren't we seeing a more meaningful revenue inflection? And what gives you confidence that the bookings you've been talking about are going to start to convert in 2027? So that's my -- the first topic.

And then more broadly on 2027, given the momentum you've described based on trends over the last few quarters, in a scenario where you're growing, call it, 4% to 5% next year, which I think is consistent with your commentary, it seems if momentum continues that BSI would grow something like 3% to 4% and BEST closer to 10%. Again, not asking you to guide, but I just want to make sure there's nothing in my logic that is off.

Frank Laukien

Our logic and math are impeccable as always, Doug. So I'm trying to get through all the pieces of your -- to all the parts of your question. The BSI book-to-bill, why has it not shown yet in Q3? The biggest part is that semi pushout that we had highlighted in our -- when Gerald gave Q3 color on Q3 during our Q2 earnings call, because otherwise, semi bookings have been just very strong year-to-date, greater than 30%. The other part is that -- and the other part that also has longer conversion times is NMR and sometimes related MRI, preclinical MRI. And that certainly felt the impact of 2025 Acad/Gov weakness in the U.S. and in China.

So the NMR part until that grows again also takes a little bit longer. So NMR and semi pushout are why you haven't seen it as much yet. You will see, as we're predicting, this all implies organic BSI organic revenue growth in Q4. I'm not saying that the Q4 rate will then, therefore, be indicative as an exit rate for '27, but it will probably be closer. And other than that, how -- yes. I think other than that, I think your logic isn't something that I would object to or detect the flaw. This is 1 of the scenarios that you've just outlined with numbers. I'm not confirming that, but I'm also not contradicting it. It's 1 of the scenarios of how it could play out. It's reasonable.

Operator

Our next question comes from Jack Meehan from Operon Research.

Jack Meehan

I wanted to ask about the new MID segment. So it looks like it grew low singles in the quarter. Can you just talk about like what you think is the right ongoing growth rate for this business in the medium term? And any moving parts you would call out? I'm not sure if there's any respiratory exposure with ELITech or anything like that. Just helping us frame that segment would be great.

Frank Laukien

Yes. Great. Good question, Jack. Yes. So no, we don't have very much respiratory not since COVID. That's de minimis for us. It's also 1 of the specialty diagnostics business that doesn't have that China headwind that you've seen with some others. So it's clean in that sense. It's infectious disease diagnostics tools have seen lower growth recently in MALDI clinical microbiology and continued very nice growth in primarily ELITech-derived sample-to-answer molecular diagnostics. There, just like last year, placements of these Genius platforms, that's the name, product name has been well ahead of business plan, and that then bodes well for consumables acceleration in next year and beyond.

And they're also developing some very, very cool new capabilities. We hope to launch -- we hope to get FDA clearance maybe before the end of the year, maybe in Q1 for the WAVE product, which is the antibiotic susceptibility testing for the U.S. There, we're going to go for the U.S. market first, and that will further strengthen our microbiology sepsis testing. And by the way, because of faster time to result can potentially save quite a few lives and/or shorten ICU times and longer-term health effect. So it has an important societal function. Wrapping up, I think that while right now, it's a little bit slower, I think this is a high single-digit growth area long term, and it has very, very nice margins.

Jack Meehan

Great. Gerald, one below-the-line follow-up for you. So in the guide, you raised the tax rate assumption from 26.5% to 27.5%. I was just wondering as a 2027 question, as we look forward, like what you think is the right ongoing tax rate for the business? And if there are any moving parts that have changed that we should be thinking about?

Gerald Herman

I mean I think generally, our position on taxes has been relatively consistent here. We're tracking somewhere in that 27.5% range, and we have been for a period of time. We have a number of tax planning initiatives, which we won't discuss here. But just fundamentally, we've got a number of initiatives underway that are expected to benefit the tax rate going forward, particularly in '27 and '28. We can talk more about that another time. But just fundamentally, I would just say that the goal for us is to continue to drive that rate down at least 50 basis points on a year-over-year basis in 2027, and then consistently thereafter. That is our target.

Operator

Our next question comes from Kyle Boucher from TD Cowen.

Kyle Boucher

I wanted to go back and build off of maybe a couple that were asked just around U.S. Acad/Gov, the order book improvement. I guess, how much of the improvement that you're seeing is really easier comparisons from the back half of 2025 versus more tangible improvement in sentiment amongst those customers?

Frank Laukien

It's both, Kyle. Certainly, the comparison was easier, right? We all know that. And I think the U.S. Acad/Gov sector still suffers from lack of conviction. As you know, in the last federal fiscal year, a lot of the funding and budget flush came late. It wasn't linearly spent even though the budget overall wasn't bad. So -- and now people will begin to look at this change with a different Congress same President, different Congress, who knows. But I'm not saying that U.S. Acad/Gov is bouncing back, snapping back, but it is getting better, weaker comparisons help. And people are back to, okay, well, we need these new tools.

We really need them to understand disease biology and you really do. You're just not going to get there with more of the same of what you have already. That's foundational what you have already, sequencing, et cetera, but you need much deeper insights to understand. And you all really need it. It's really shown the people that do have the money, which is in biotech and biotech pharma, they get these latest and greatest tools. And I think that's kind of the -- and also overseas people when they do have the budgets in Acad/Gov, they're going for these tools, fully appreciating that they need to understand targets and mechanism of action, biology and off-target effects, all these complexities much, much better if they want to have a better drug discovery and fundamental disease translational approaches.

So yes, I think this inevitably also then strengthens. There still is a lot of state and philanthropic and other funding. And these days, it's not so much traditionally the Department of Chemistry needing more NMRs or mass specs. Now it's the cancer or neurodegeneration or autoimmunity or cardiovascular disease, academic medical centers, and they have other sources of funding. So that part is really getting stronger.

Kyle Boucher

Got it. Maybe just one more sort of conceptual question, but you mentioned during the call that you're below your target leverage range. I guess can you just talk a little bit about how you're thinking about M&A going forward now that you're under your leverage target?

Frank Laukien

Well, we did some M&A this year. MIMETAS was an important 1, and it gets us into a new area in addition to our preclinical imaging, the preclinical humanized organs on a chip model that are, in some ways, closer to human physiology than animal models are tremendously important. It wasn't very, very large M&A. You're right. We didn't do any of that this year. And we did some other -- a couple of smaller acquisitions that were really very important for the BMID for diagnostic -- infectious disease diagnostic sequencing, including sequencing the metagenome, which also can help sometimes in extreme cases in detecting infections directly from blood without a blood culture and then some enrichment technology.

So we did some smaller bolt-ons that were technically very, very important for our BMID group and which I think also have -- in addition to good market demand, I think -- and to Jack's question earlier, I think in terms of new solutions that you'll see launched in '27 and '28 in that group, microbiology and molecular diagnostics, we -- I think they'll also outgrow their markets perhaps quite significantly. So we've done some M&A. We have now, again, some more capacity for M&A, but we also like EPS accretion. So we'll be very disciplined.

Operator

Our next question comes from Dan Arias from Stifel.

Daniel Arias

Frank, on the $20 million in pushed off revenues, can you just refresh the view on confidence and timing there? And then more broadly, I guess, just how are you finding the conversation on timing associated with semi product acceptance revenue recognition? Obviously, you're seeing pushback on like data center build-outs. It seems like it could build based on last night's results. But then if you read about permits and construction activity, that still seems pretty good. So I guess what would you say about the error bars around timing? Are they getting wider, narrower or kind of just staying the same?

Frank Laukien

It's a good question, Dan. I'd say it's kind of staying the same. I mean these big fab projects are within a fab adding additional lines is remarkably on time. I mean that's 1 industry that runs is extremely well managed, but that doesn't mean you cannot have a 1 quarter shift or sometimes a 2-quarter shift. But -- so that all continues as before, actually with -- usually, you can really plan very well. Things don't get delayed by a year in that industry.

Rev rec is not problematic there when they -- when we ship and install these systems work. I mean these are very robust, high-volume manufacturing metrology systems.

These are not finicky scientific. I mean they are extremely -- extreme nanoscience, but they're very, very robust and high throughput systems. Yes, data center build-out in the U.S., but I mean, we'll have to realize the U.S. is only a small is only a fraction, not a small fraction. It's an increasing, but still a small-ish fraction compared to what's going on in Japan and in APAC, a little bit in Europe. But it's mostly in China itself where we can only deliver lower-end systems, that's booming. And then the rest of APAC and big build-out in Japan and of course, Taiwan and Korea and Singapore are all investing very heavily. So that build-out is, if anything, it's accelerating.

Daniel Arias

Yes. Okay. Okay. Helpful. And then just, Gerald, maybe a bookings clarification. Were BSI bookings up during the quarter, you had said mid-singles year-to-date, but the first 2 quarters of the year were double digits. So just trying to square away the 3Q number in order to get to the 9-month range here.

Gerald Herman

Yes. I think the bookings performance is low single digit in the third quarter.

Frank Laukien

Third quarter last year was very, very strong. So actually, I think that's Q3 of '25 and bookings were very strong. So yes, it is up sequentially. Well, sorry, it is up year-over-year, low single digits, and it is up sequentially in the mid to high single digits compared to Q2 of 2026. It is all good.

Gerald Herman

Yes, it's all moving. The momentum is there, I'd say, yes.

Operator

Our next question comes from Albert Hu from Citi.

Albert Hu

Maybe on the previous question on semis, you guys called out nothing's really changed here. So are you guys still expecting that business to be around, call it, $300 million to end the year on mid- to high single-digit growth, 30% EBIT margins? And does that translate to -- just given the bookings to maybe like a mid-teens grower, call it, $400 million business next year? I appreciate the color. And I have a follow-up.

Frank Laukien

Good question. You may have summed up slightly. I think we're not prepared to discuss that. We're not -- we don't give '27 guidance. We're certainly not giving granularity yet. But directionally, I can't reproduce all the math that you have in your head right now, but I think the direction is correct. And yes, that business if anything would accelerate in revenue growth next year compared to this year, that is also correct. And its order growth has already been very good. And we hope that -- we think that will continue into '27 and then beyond '27, we follow what the industry thinks and the industry hasn't really taken a position on '28, '29 yet, but they're pretty sure that '27 things will continue to hum along with very fast growth rates.

Albert Hu

Got it. Okay. And then I think you previously called out some potential NIH budget flush in September. Is that what you guys saw that drove the double-digit A&G bookings this quarter? And I guess, do you expect that to flow through given the 6 to 9-month conversion time for A&G to grow next year? Or how should we kind of juggle just the strong double-digit bookings in the forward thinking? Appreciate it.

Frank Laukien

Yes, right, Albert. I think the double-digit bookings in Q3 had a lot to do with the weak Q3 of last year and maybe some incremental orders that came, but there was a budget flush at NIH for sure. That's well documented. Most of that, we think, will help us with Q4 orders and perhaps some of that will still take a little bit of time and go into Q1 orders. So the budget flush that was not significantly responsible for improved bookings in Q3. I think it's just there's a lot of pent-up demand. People need the newer tools.

At some point, they just do whatever it takes within their university or academic medical center or research hospital to get the new tools, and they're getting used to this slightly less predictable federal funding and they're just dealing with this new -- and they're settling into that and are now kind of back to where they're placing orders for what they really need. And then the budget flush that did take place probably for us, primarily helped -- will help Q4 and Q1 bookings.

Operator

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we will be ending today's question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to Joe Kostka for closing comments.

Joe Kostka

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 fourth quarter. Feel free to reach out to me to arrange any follow-ups. Have a good day.

Operator

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.