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Global testing and inspection company providing laboratory analysis for mining/commodities, environmental and life-science customers.
Global testing and inspection company providing laboratory analysis for mining/commodities, environmental and life-science customers.
Charges per sample analyzed, so volume is the driver. The geochemistry unit that tests drill samples for explorers is the most cyclical, swinging with miners' exploration budgets, while environmental and life-science testing is steadier, driven by regulation and product testing. Growth has included buying laboratories.
In one line: Australia's SGS/Bureau Veritas.
Moat: narrow (scale, installed base, regulatory licence). Global accredited lab network and long sample chain-of-custody relationships with miners.
Headquarters: Brisbane, Australia · Employees: 23,342
Size ALS (ALQ.AX) is an Australia Industrials company (Miscellaneous Commercial Services) with a market value of $7.40B, the 47th largest of 316 Australia companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at A$21.05 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 3.4%, against +10.8% for the median peer and +4.1% for the Australia market (cap-weighted) — 5th lowest of 20 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 10.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +4.4%); the operating margin is 17.1% (peer median 12.8%).
Valuation It trades at 23.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 14.5× (5th most expensive of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 23% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +14%, so the hurdle is +9 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.0 points above its cost of capital (11.6% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 23 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | A$3.32B | A$3.32B | A$3.00B | A$2.46B | A$2.28B |
| Revenue growth | — | +11% | +22% | +8% | — |
| Gross profit | A$566M | A$1.04B | A$931M | A$838M | A$829M |
| EBITDA | A$820M | A$836M | A$694M | A$641M | A$602M |
| Net income | A$319M | A$319M | A$256M | A$12.9M | A$279M |
| Free cash flow | A$232M | A$232M | A$252M | A$208M | A$297M |
| Capital expenditure | A$263M | A$263M | A$165M | A$152M | A$146M |
| Total debt | n/a | A$1.57B | A$2.09B | A$1.87B | A$1.45B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALS ALQ.AX | $7.40B | -3% | +11% | 17% | 23.6× | 23.0% |
| Sgs SGSN.SW | $24.8B | +21% | +5% | 15% | 24.5× | 3.1% |
| Bureau Veritas BVI.PA | $14.9B | +13% | +2% | 15% | 20.2× | 7.9% |
| Intertek ITRK.L | $12.3B | +12% | +4% | 18% | 22.3× | 14.8% |
| Eurofins Scientific ERF.PA | $17.5B | +49% | +3% | 12% | 23.0× | 13.3% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | ALQ.AX | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +2.8% | +8.9% | 6th lowest of 20 |
| 6-month return | -3.4% | +10.8% | 5th lowest of 20 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -19.6% | -12.1% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +10.7% | +4.4% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 17.1% | 12.8% | 5th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 23.6× | 14.5× | 5th most expensive of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 23.0% | 2.2% | 3rd most demanding of 21 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +13.5% | +11.8% | 9th highest of 21 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +9.5 pp | -12.0 pp | 4th most demanding of 21 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.0 pp | +6.1 pp | 7th lowest of 17 |
| EV / EBITDA | 14.8× | 9.7× | 3rd most expensive of 19 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.7× | 2.2× | 7th least indebted of 19 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ALS ALQ.AX | Australia | $7.40B | -3% | +11% | 17% | 23.6× | 23.0% | +13.5% |
| Iss A/s ISS.CO | Denmark | $7.08B | +13% | +4% | 5% | 15.3× | -6.1% | +3.7% |
| Genpact G | United States | $7.07B | +30% | +7% | 16% | 9.9× | -7.5% | +6.5% |
| Airtel Mobile Commerce AMC.L | United Kingdom | $7.05B | n/a | +30% | 48% | n/a | 11.5% | +30.3% |
| Edenred EDEN.PA | France | $6.52B | +15% | +3% | 30% | 12.0× | -8.0% | +13.9% |
| Elis ELIS.PA | France | $6.44B | -12% | +5% | 13% | 12.0× | 10.1% | +11.3% |
| Spie SPIE.PA | France | $8.64B | -8% | +3% | 6% | 14.5× | 8.6% | +9.3% |
| CAE CAE.TO | Canada | $8.67B | +3% | +5% | 13% | 29.5× | 13.2% | +10.5% |
| Securitas SECU-B.ST | Sweden | $9.22B | +4% | -5% | 7% | 12.3× | -4.9% | +7.5% |
| Nexi NEXI.MI | Italy | $5.93B | +18% | +1% | 13% | 7.0× | 1.5% | +30.5% |
| Beijing Compass Technology Development 300803.SZ | China | $5.91B | -23% | +12% | 0% | 174.6× | 46.9% | +25.3% |
| Reply REY.MI | Italy | $5.46B | +41% | +6% | 13% | 17.0× | 2.9% | +14.4% |
| Booz Allen Hamilton BAH | United States | $10.1B | +11% | -6% | 9% | 13.3× | -7.0% | +7.4% |
| FTI Consulting FCN | United States | $5.33B | +19% | +8% | 10% | 18.7× | -3.6% | +9.0% |
| Baycurrent 6532.T | Japan | $11.2B | +132% | +32% | 33% | 35.6× | 6.4% | +28.2% |
| Aalberts AALB.AS | Netherlands | $4.87B | +6% | 0% | 10% | 14.6× | 12.9% | +3.4% |
| L&T Technology Services LTTS.NS | India | $4.79B | +13% | +2% | 15% | 29.4× | 31.0% | +15.1% |
| Dizal Pharmaceutical 688192.SS | China | $4.68B | +18% | +720% | 69% | 9.5× | -8.4% | +95.9% |
| Rentokil Initial RTO.L | United Kingdom | $11.9B | -26% | 0% | 14% | 16.9× | 8.2% | +13.4% |
| Teleperformance TEP.PA | France | $4.60B | +3% | -3% | 10% | 5.0× | -10.2% | +12.2% |
| Brink's BCO | United States | $4.54B | +3% | +7% | 10% | 11.8× | 0.1% | +7.3% |