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US hazardous-waste disposal and industrial/environmental services company; also collects and re-refines used motor oil.
US hazardous-waste disposal and industrial/environmental services company; also collects and re-refines used motor oil.
Charges fees to take in and treat hazardous waste at its own incinerators, landfills and treatment sites, which are hard to permit, and collects used motor oil that it re-refines into base oil, so profit there moves with oil-linked base-oil prices. The 2012 purchase of Safety-Kleen added the oil re-refining and parts-cleaning services. Alan McKim founded it in 1980 and still leads it.
Moat: narrow (regulatory licence, scale, installed base). Permitted incinerators and disposal sites are costly and slow to replicate; large collection network.
Headquarters: Norwell, Massachusetts, US · Founded: 1980 · Employees: 22,155
Size Clean Harbors (CLH) is a United States Industrials company (Environmental Services) with a market value of $15.0B, the 599th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $284.10 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 2.4%, against +20.5% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 3rd lowest of 7 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 10.1% over the last twelve months (peer median +11.6%); the operating margin is 13.2% (peer median 7.3%).
Valuation It trades at 29.2× forward earnings against a peer median of 29.9× (4th cheapest of 7).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 12% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +14%, so the hurdle is -2 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 3.3 points above its cost of capital (8.6% WACC).
Credit Clean Harbors has 1 bond outstanding ($300M), rated BB+ by the agencies and trading like BB at a weighted spread of 137 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 2.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 24 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $6.56B | $6.03B | $5.89B | $5.41B | $5.17B |
| Revenue growth | — | +2% | +9% | +5% | — |
| Gross profit | $1.70B | $1.43B | $1.41B | $1.28B | $1.26B |
| EBITDA | $1.34B | $1.13B | $1.08B | $992M | $995M |
| Net income | $528M | $391M | $402M | $378M | $412M |
| Free cash flow | $501M | $442M | $346M | $312M | $281M |
| Capital expenditure | $524M | $429M | $442M | $425M | $347M |
| Total debt | $3.15B | $3.27B | $3.23B | $2.62B | $2.59B |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean Harbors CLH | $15.0B | -2% | +10% | 13% | 29.2× | 11.7% |
| Republic Services RSG | $75.2B | +24% | +4% | 20% | 31.9× | 6.6% |
| Waste Management WM | $93.9B | +10% | +5% | 19% | 27.4× | 5.8% |
| Veolia Environnement VIE.PA | $27.7B | -3% | 0% | 8% | 14.1× | 8.3% |
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 | CLH | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | -10.5% | +9.2% | lowest of 7 |
| 6-month return | -2.4% | +20.5% | 3rd lowest of 7 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -15.4% | -4.4% | 2nd lowest of 7 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +10.1% | +11.6% | 4th highest of 7 |
| Operating margin | 13.2% | 7.3% | 3rd highest of 7 |
| Forward P/E | 29.2× | 29.9× | 4th cheapest of 7 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 11.7% | 15.6% | 4th least demanding of 7 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +13.9% | +12.6% | 2nd highest of 7 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -2.2 pp | +3.0 pp | 3rd least demanding of 7 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +3.3 pp | -2.7 pp | highest of 7 |
| EV / EBITDA | 13.1× | 17.7× | 3rd cheapest of 6 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.0× | 3.2× | 2nd least indebted of 6 |
| Bond spread | 137 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clean Harbors CLH | United States | $15.0B | -2% | +10% | 13% | 29.2× | 11.7% | +13.9% |
| GFL Environmental GFL | United States | $20.2B | +26% | +5% | 5% | 58.8× | 42.5% | +7.9% |
| Casella Waste Systems CWST | United States | $6.25B | +15% | +14% | 5% | 72.1× | 36.3% | +18.8% |
| Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas FCC.MC | Spain | $5.53B | -10% | +10% | 7% | 15.1× | 2.9% | +9.5% |
| Waste Connections WCN.TO | Canada | $47.6B | +27% | +6% | 18% | 31.6× | 10.7% | +12.6% |
| Cleanaway Waste Management CWY.AX | Australia | $4.68B | +35% | +13% | 8% | 28.2× | 20.5% | +12.6% |
| Grandblue Environment 600323.SS | China | $3.78B | -3% | +24% | 24% | 11.0× | -4.7% | +13.3% |
Clean Harbors has 1 bond outstanding with $300M face value. The agencies rate it BB+; its bonds trade like BB. Weighted yield 5.99%, a spread of 137 bp over government bonds.