Operator
Good day, and 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 0. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2.
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
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 & 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 31st, 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, August 4th, 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 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.
Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Bruker CEO, Frank Laukien.
Frank Laukien
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 and medical research business, bookings in Europe and China were up strongly.
However, US academic orders still remained weak in Q2. 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 semicon 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 to 24 months, determined by facility readiness, for example, for a new logic or memory chip wafer fabs or for large-scale fusion development projects.
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, and 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, CALID, and Optics divisions into a new Bruker BioSystems Group, led by Group President Juergen Srega. 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; or, as another example, in battery research, development, and battery life cycle QC, where NMR and FTIR characterize electrolytes, electrodes, and chemistry. In addition, Bruker Microbiology and Infection Diagnostics, which we sometimes abbreviate as B-MID, previously a division within the CALID Group, has now been established as a group under the leadership of Dr.
Wolfgang Pusch. This B-MID 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, B-MID or Bruker Microbiology and Infection Diagnostics, and Bruker Energy and Supercon Technologies, or BEST. This new structure is expected to drive an additional $20 million of cost reductions in fiscal year 2027.
All right, on to the quarter. Let's turn to slide 4 now for the P&L performance of the second quarter.
Our Q2 '26 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%, and the 0.9% FX revenue tailwind was actually 50 bps 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 '26 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 '25 and including a net US tariff refund benefit that Gerald will describe in a moment.
Our second quarter '26 diluted non-GAAP EPS was 49 cents, up 53% from 32 cents in the second quarter of '25. Moving to slide 5, H1 '26 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 '26 non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin, and EPS were all up year-over-year, and their performance is summarized on slide 5.
Gerald will go into more detail on the drivers shortly. Please turn to slide 6 and 7, where we highlight the first half '26 performance of our three Scientific Instruments groups and of BEST, all in constant currency and year-over-year basis.
In the first half of '26, the BioSpin Group revenue was $393 million, down mid-single-digit percentage year-over-year. BioSpin saw strong revenue growth in hospital, clinical, and biopharma, offset by weakness in China, academic/government, food testing, and automation.
NMR preclinical imaging had robust order growth, both up double digits in the first half year-over-year. For the first half of '26, CALID Group revenue of $627 million increased in the mid-single-digit percentage, driven by mass spectrometry, including the TOFWERK acquisition.
CALID saw strength in biopharma, security detection, and European academic/government, partially offset by weaker revenues in the US. First half revenue growth in molecular diagnostics was solid, while microbiology was roughly flat.
Please turn to slide 7 now. First half 2026 Bruker Nano revenue was $507 million, with a low-single-digit percentage decline.
Nano saw weakness in academic/government and industrial markets, while weakness in US academic/government funding continued to impact spatial biology. 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 '26 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 multiyear orders for fusion energy and high-energy physics technologies, and we'll come back to that in a moment.
Moving to slide 8 and 9. On slide 8, we highlight our semiconductor metrology Nano tools, 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 '26 organic order growth was greater than 30%, and the first half '26 organic revenue growth was greater than 15%, obviously somewhat lagging behind order growth.
This business is very profitable. It has about a 30% EBIT margin.
Longer lead times in this business, which can be 9 to 24 months, can result in revenue lagging order growth by several quarters. If you go to slide 9, we touch on our other deep tech areas, our security detection on the left and energy research on the right, and 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 orders tend to lag our revenues tend to lag the order trends by a couple of quarters, and 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 and then very much into '27 and into the outer years.
In summary, in the second quarter, we achieved solid orders in many life science end markets, and 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, and 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
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 '26 were unfavorably impacted by US tariff refunds and a stronger US dollar, which translated into less tailwind on revenue, in total approximately 110 basis points.
US 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 '26 operating margins year-over-year. Net US tariffs contributed about 6 cents to EPS in the second quarter.
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 '26, 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 US 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 '26, 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. BSI organic revenue grew 2.3% in the second quarter '26, with low-single-digit organic growth in CALID and Bruker Nano, partially offset by flat revenue performance in BioSpin.
BSI systems 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 US academic/government and food safety.
Second quarter '26 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 US tariff impact, and favorable volume mix, partially offset by foreign currency headwinds, as shown on the slide.
On a non-GAAP basis, second quarter 2026 diluted EPS was 49 cents, up 53% 53%, rather, from the 32 cents in the second quarter of '25. Our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 25% compared to 23.6% in the second quarter of '25.
On a GAAP basis, we reported a diluted loss per share of 41 cents compared to GAAP EPS of 5 cents in the second quarter of '25. Our second quarter '26 GAAP results include a non-cash goodwill impairment charges of $135 million related to our automation and spatial biology businesses, which continued 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.
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 2.8 times as of June 30th, 2026. Turning now to slide 15, our fiscal year 2026 financial update outlook, rather, 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 to $3.57 billion and representing reported growth of 3% to 4% compared to fiscal year '25. Organic revenue growth of 1% to 2% year-over-year, which is unchanged, and acquisitions are expected to contribute 1.5% to growth, also unchanged.
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 the range of $2.10 to $2.15, or non-GAAP EPS growth of 15% to 17% compared to fiscal year '25, all unchanged, as lower headwinds from foreign exchange are broadly offset by higher our higher effective tax rate.
Other guidance assumptions are listed on the slide. Our fiscal year 2026 ranges have been updated for foreign currency rates as of June 30th, 2026.
Now some color on the third quarter of '26. 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 6-cent net US 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. To wrap up, Q2 '26 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 fiscal year 2026, and we're driving towards further significant margin improvement and double-digit EPS growth also in 2027. With that, I'd like to turn the call back to Joe.
Thank you very much.
Joe Kostka
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. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 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 2.
Our first question will come from Puneet Souda of Leerink Partners. Please go ahead.
Yeah.
Puneet Souda
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 pass-through 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, but 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
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
Okay. Then
Gerald Herman
Hopefully that helps.
Puneet Souda
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, because 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
Yeah. No, this is the orders are remarkable for the first half and even more so in Q2.
Of course, there'll be some fluctuations, but if anything, it seems to be accelerating, as one would expect, probably. We think and 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.
Then I think the debate is whether it's sustainable at that pace in '28 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.
That can easily be 3 to sometimes, 6 to 8 quarters. Visibility is very good, because those customers are very 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 more of some of that comes in in Q4.
As Gerald said, I think we'll have a very strong Q4. Then quite a bit of this goes into next year in terms of revenue and P&L help, and even into '28.
Great sustainability, great visibility, slightly longer lead times.
Puneet Souda
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
The next question comes from Michael Ryskin of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Michael Ryskin
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-tariff or including tariffs, but overall, organic was still a little bit lighter than we would have 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 pushouts or timing, or just sort of how to think about 2Q relative to your prior assumptions?
Thanks.
Frank Laukien
Mike. Thank you.
Other than about the combined effect of tariff refunds on revenue, which was as you can see was 60 bps, and there is an additional 50 bps effect from the currency tailwind actually being about 50 bps lower than had been expected because currency rates change, that'll become more pronounced in Q3. In Q3, that currency tailwind on the revenue line is turning into a currency headwind.
In Q3, that takes out about 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, so that combined effect was about 110 bps of growth rate.
Still on the light side on the revenues and on the organic revenues. The number one and two and three reason are in our US academic/government.
Our US academic/government 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, yeah, the order, that just takes a couple of quarters.
What you're seeing there right now, that was the biggest weakness in revenue in the second quarter.
Michael Ryskin
Okay. If I could squeeze a follow-up, just Gerald, maybe for you, the margin ramp through the second half of the year, obviously there's 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 stepping point, we'd love to get some clarity on that. Thanks.
Gerald Herman
Yeah. In terms of the 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, and some of the revenue because of customer timing is moving to the fourth quarter. In addition, we, 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. 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.
Then, of course, we have a strong expected fourth quarter, significant growth there. There's a bunch of factors related to that.
There's the pushout I just described in semi. We have a much stronger expectation around we have an ultra-high-field coming into the fourth quarter.
We have a number of mix improvements that are much better in that. We have a much higher volume.
As I think 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
All right. Thanks.
Gerald Herman
Sure.
Operator
The next question comes from Tycho Peterson of Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Tycho Peterson
Hey, 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?
Then how are you thinking about input costs here, going forward? Also, are you backing off the 350 300 to 350 basis of core margin expansion?
You had that in the deck last quarter. I didn't see you reiterate that.
Then the incremental cost-out actions, how do we think about those falling through into '27?
Gerald Herman
Okay. 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 the $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, but still some So we're well on track with, I would say, a 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 kind of right on track to where we expected 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. As I said earlier, we have a strong set up in the fourth quarter typically, even seasonally for Bruker, and it appears that we're going to have another one of those as we march into the fourth quarter of '26.
The mix story, we are going to get some and continue to get some pricing benefit from adjustments we made in 2025 into '26, 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 elements. 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, based on what we see at this stage.
Frank Laukien
I think, Tycho, to your operating margin question, if you even look at our slide 15, if we haven't been clear enough, yeah, that continues to be based Our guidance continues to be based on an operating margin up 250 to 300 bps reported, including a 50 bps headwind. Detailed a little bit on our slide 15 on the outlook, so that is unchanged.
Then
Tycho Peterson
on the COGS side, Gerald, just inflationary, memory chips, tungsten, et cetera? Yeah.
That seems to be
Gerald Herman
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 on the electronic side. At this stage, we're pretty comfortable that that's already been baked in to our current guide.
Okay. Then,
Tycho Peterson
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
Yeah. It's US still weak, as I said, and then so we're seeing the encouraging NIH outlays, but they did not get translated into significant Q2 orders.
We will observe what's happening in Q3, and of course, the Q3 budget flush, which seems to be underway, could for us also mean decent Q4 US academic/gov bookings. We'll see.
In Q2 already, the academic/gov orders outside of the US, in particularly in the EU, was up more than 10%. In China, the orders were up more than 20% for academic/gov in Q2.
Remember, China was down on revenue, but then on orders, it was up more than 20% in academic/gov. That's that six months delay that you usually see at Bruker.
Yeah. Academic/gov, which, I think that really supports the strength of our ASMS mass spec introduction, the new things we can do with our NMRs, and of course, our, even our other spatial biology and other tools or so.
That the portfolio and I think is spot-on. I think that the innovation will have major impact.
If we only had a little bit more US funding, but maybe that's coming. Where we have funding, it really is it has a big impact.
That bodes well for academic/gov competitiveness and market share gains, except it's starting right now in Europe and in APAC, and China in particular.
Tycho Peterson
Thank you.
Frank Laukien
All right.
Operator
The next question comes from Subbu Nambi of Guggenheim. Please go ahead.
Subbu Nambi
Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question.
Team, this will be at least a second year in a row where there is a timing dynamic challenge at the top line and seemingly a pushout 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 '27, would that be on top of that 4%?
Thank you so much.
Frank Laukien
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 1 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. Q Q Q4 will should have a nice mid-single-digit organic growth rate.
It's a little bit, it's a little bit of a roller coaster with Q2 growth and Q4 organic growth and Q Q1 and Q3 Q1 was down; Q3 will be flat to slightly up. For the year, it's what we're what we what we've been aiming for and what we've what's in our guidance, namely the organic revenue growth of 1% to 2%, which is a transition year, admittedly, because of but it comes from a year of '25 where we were declining organically for all the factors that you know.
Whether Q4 the Q4 growth rate is then what an indicative of our '27 growth rate is too early to say. Give us another 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 growth acceleration in '27 organic growth acceleration in '27 compared to '26, but we cannot quantify that at this time.
Subbu Nambi
Thank you for that, Frank. Gerald, I know you 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 has support, some of it was just structural.
What changed? Is it just this product mix or and do you get this back at some point over the subsequent one or two quarters?
Thank you so much.
Frank Laukien
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 because some Primarily because of these margin these tariff refunds literally 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
Thank you so much.
Frank Laukien
Sure.
Operator
The next question comes from Luke Sergott of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Luke Sergott
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. They were
Frank Laukien
You mean sequentially?
Gerald Herman
Sequentially?
Luke Sergott
Yeah. Were they down sequentially?
Gerald Herman
No.
Luke Sergott
No,
Gerald Herman
they were up sequentially.
Frank Laukien
We're scrambling for the numbers, but they were up. Yeah.
Luke Sergott
Okay. Great.
Then as you think about the 4Q step-up here and in light of the strong bookings that you guys have had, how much of that 4Q step over the billion dollars, roughly about that number, is already covered in your backlog?
Frank Laukien
It's obviously going to be more than a billion, right? You do the math, it's 1.02 to 1.04 or something like that.
Luke Sergott
And Roughly close, yeah. percentage of that
Frank Laukien
a lot of that is in our backlog now. Of course, we also get some, 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 2/3, but again. Do not I do not have a You've stumped us twice.
We do not have exact numbers for both of your questions. We will, however, when we call you back, because we just don't have it at our fingertips.
Luke Sergott
All right. That's a bucket list to stump you twice, Frank, I appreciate it.
Thanks.
Frank Laukien
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
Oh yeah, yeah, on the and just sticking on the guide here, as you guys think about the pick up in the business, but from a demand perspective, what needs to get better? Is it all in 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
Quite honestly, almost everything is pretty good now. Applied markets, food analysis, a little weak, but that's small for us anyway.
US academic/gov clearly is the one outlier. Even with US academic/gov, even if it stayed weak, we'll take a growth step-up next year.
If US academic/gov came back at least in a modest way, then, obviously, we'd take a bigger growth step-up next year. More and more areas.
Biopharma has been great in the last two or three quarters, and again in Q2. Pharma, biopharma, the tools that we sell into that, timsTOF, timsTOF systems, NMRs, spatial biology, X-ray, it's really all quite good.
Plus then what people sometimes call these idiosyncratic growth drivers, because they're not What we call them deep tech now, because they're just it's not all life science, but they're absolutely terrific. However, with this delayed gratification of them typically having nine, sometimes longer, not nine months or longer delivery times.
That's driven by the customers, not by our capacity.
Luke Sergott
Great. Thank you.
Gerald Herman
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
Sequentially.
Gerald Herman
Yeah.
Frank Laukien
OK.
Luke Sergott
Perfect. Thanks.
Gerald Herman
Yep.
Operator
The next question comes from Casey Woodring of JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Casey Woodring
Great. Thanks for taking my questions.
Just to follow up on the deep tech piece, 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? 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
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, whatever, a couple of years ago, and it's just been getting stronger.
It was 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.
Energy research, that greatly exceeded in terms of timings and amount what we had expected. It's well over 100%.
At that level, at that high growth rate, it's not sustainable, but that business is very sustainable, because a lot of some of these orders are literally for '27, '28, and some going to '29, they'll have very good continuing revenue growth in the foreseeable future. They've been batting, I don't know, they've been batting .800 or something instead of the usual batting .400, to use baseball terminology.
They've just done really well. Their order success rate and win rate has been ahead of their own expectations, and we're delighted.
Casey Woodring
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
In what region was that? I didn't catch it.
Europe
Casey Woodring
grew 10%, just maybe unpack that performance. Thank you.
Frank Laukien
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 for all the other divisions. It was very healthy also on molecular diagnostics.
Our ELITech 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 ELITech business was ahead, well ahead of business plan.
As that then bodes very well as the consumables pull through then builds on that larger installed base. Those were some of the highlights.
Gerald Herman
I'd just add biopharma was solid as well in the quarter, in Europe.
Frank Laukien
Right.
Gerald Herman
Yeah.
Casey Woodring
Thank you.
Frank Laukien
Sure.
Operator
The next question comes from Dan Arias of Stifel. Please go ahead.
Dan Arias
Hi, guys. Thank you.
Frank, just a follow-up on your comments around revenue recognition timing tied to the metrology business, what portion of the portfolio falls into that bucket of 6-plus quarters when it comes to acceptance and just hitting the P&L? Just trying to get my hands around on pie charts, etc., within that business.
Frank Laukien
Okay. Hi, Dan.
Thinking for a moment. The deep tech portfolio is maybe all together 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
Okay. That's a good helpful kind of a
Frank Laukien
The deep tech portfolio with the longer delivery times of let's say 3 3 to 6 quarters is about 15% of our portfolio. Yeah.
That does not include In this case, we have not 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 wire. If you Yes, 15% is deep tech semicon metrology, security detection, energy research.
In this case, I did not bundle the Supercon solutions into that. That, of course, they have, they get these five- or seven-year framework contracts.
That has a very different rhythm. About 15%, I think, is the question that you're 15%, that's what probably what you're looking for.
Dan Arias
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
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. At our factories and final test sites that use a lot of helium, they really all have helium reliquefaction, it's the terminology.
We capture all of it, and we reliquefy all of it. I think we're at 80%, 90% that we reliquefy.
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 reliquefaction 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.
I'd say at the overall financial level, it's not something we need to highlight. It's manageable.
Dan Arias
Yep. Fair enough.
Okay. Thank you, Frank.
Frank Laukien
Sure, Dan. Yeah.
Operator
The next question will come from Jack Meehan of Operon Research. Please go ahead.
Jack Meehan
Good morning, everyone. Wanted to dig a little bit more into CALID 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
Hi, Jack. 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.
That's also our expectation for the year.
Jack Meehan
Great. Okay.
Then 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
Okay. We're not ready for '27 color or guidance, but yes, we very much intend to again grow our margins well above 100 bps next year as well from our '26 basis.
Of course, we're looking for double-digit hopefully mid-teens EPS, non-GAAP EPS growth next year as well. As we had said, and that won't end with '27.
We're really on our goal is to drive back towards a 20% EBIT operating margin as quickly as possible and then more gradually move up to the low 20s in EBIT and mid-20s in EBITDA.
Jack Meehan
Great. Thank you, Frank.
Frank Laukien
Congrats on Operon.
Gerald Herman
Yes, congratulations, Jack.
Frank Laukien
Yeah. One more question?
Gerald Herman
Can we do
Frank Laukien
one more question, yeah?
Joe Kostka
Okay. Operator, we can do one more question.
Operator
One more question? Okay.
Our next question will come from Brendan Dagen of Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, this is Albert Hu on for Brendan. I just want to circle back on the 4Q growth.
I want to exactly understand what is baked in. We got the $20 million pushout 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 what exact why they got pushed out in the first place?
Then what's the confidence level that it won't get pushed out again? Thank you.
Frank Laukien
Okay. The third item is, of course, that currency has turned this year 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 that's the FX part that we adjusted in our overall guidance. It's now a 0.5% tailwind, and it used to be 1.5% tailwind.
The biggest effect of that is in Q3 and in Q4. That's not organic, maybe it's not a shouldn't be a concern, but just saying.
Q4 growth, yeah, mostly the $20 million in in in deliveries that that that we 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.
Of course, it 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 a little bit more semi-heavy and and and faster turning academic/gov or so in the US still weaker than we had expected because moneys are coming out later.
The ultra-high-field that we are expecting in Q4 revenue, I mean these things are never guaranteed, because we have to install them, but you I I think our our success ratio of of delivery and and success on installations is greater than 80%. Don't get hung up on that either.
The 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 with with our strong Q4 guidance at this or implied guidance for Q4 at this point. I think that's that's simply what happens every year.
We try to smooth it out a little bit, and then during the year, some customer delays or sometimes technical delays come in. I think we'll be cool in Q4, and Q4 should be a good quarter, and Q3 should be okay, but 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
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, and you may now disconnect.