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Provides preclinical contract research services (drug safety testing, research models) supporting pharmaceutical and biotech drug development.
Provides preclinical contract research services (drug safety testing, research models) supporting pharmaceutical and biotech drug development.
Customers pay per study, often under fixed-fee contracts running months, for safety testing before a drug enters human trials, while research models (purpose-bred lab animals) are sold per unit. Because studies are booked in advance, the order backlog and biotech funding decide near-term volume.
Moat: narrow (process know-how, regulatory licence, switching costs). Regulatory-accredited safety-testing facilities and specialized research-model supply create barriers to entry.
Headquarters: Wilmington, Massachusetts, USA · Founded: 1947 · Employees: 19,700
Size Charles River Laboratories (CRL) is a United States Health Care company (Miscellaneous Commercial Services) with a market value of $16.1B, the 570th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $337.52 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 90.0%, against +25.9% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 2nd highest of 15 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 1.2% over the last twelve months (peer median +0.7%); the operating margin is 15.4% (peer median 3.4%).
Valuation It trades at 26.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 22.7× (3rd most expensive of 9).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 25% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +7%, so the hurdle is +19 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 2.6 points below its cost of capital (10.7% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $675M at 26 Sep 2026, up 4% on a year earlier — 0.2 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Credit Charles River Laboratories has 1 bond outstanding ($500M), rated BB by the agencies and trading like BBB- at a weighted spread of 109 bp.
Short interest Short interest is 5.9% 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 | $3.98B | $4.02B | $4.05B | $4.13B | $3.98B |
| Revenue growth | — | -1% | -2% | +4% | — |
| Gross profit | $1.33B | $1.23B | $1.27B | $1.39B | $1.32B |
| EBITDA | $896M | $919M | $929M | $975M | $956M |
| Net income | $40.2M | -$144M | $10.3M | $475M | $486M |
| Free cash flow | $400M | $518M | $502M | $365M | $295M |
| Capital expenditure | $223M | $219M | $233M | $319M | $325M |
| Total debt | $2.85B | $2.63B | $2.78B | $3.13B | $3.15B |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles River Laboratories CRL | $16.1B | +90% | -1% | 15% | 26.6× | 25.3% |
| Labcorp LH | $29.8B | +45% | +6% | 11% | 19.0× | 13.9% |
| ICON ICLR | $15.3B | +64% | +1% | 10% | 18.2× | 16.3% |
| Wuxi Apptec 2359.HK | $66.3B | +40% | +38% | 44% | 20.4× | 8.7% |
| Pharmaron Beijing 3759.HK | $11.3B | +45% | +24% | 14% | 22.9× | n/a |
| Evotec EVT.DE | $630M | -33% | -8% | -19% | n/a | n/a |
| 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 | CRL | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +13.3% | +5.8% | 5th highest of 15 |
| 6-month return | +90.0% | +25.9% | 2nd highest of 15 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -11.1% | -16.8% | 6th highest of 15 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -1.2% | +0.7% | 6th lowest of 12 |
| Operating margin | 15.4% | 3.4% | 4th highest of 13 |
| Forward P/E | 26.6× | 22.7× | 3rd most expensive of 9 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 25.3% | 22.0% | 3rd most demanding of 10 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.6% | +15.2% | 5th lowest of 10 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +18.8 pp | -0.2 pp | 3rd most demanding of 10 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -2.6 pp | -4.5 pp | 5th highest of 10 |
| EV / EBITDA | 21.0× | 18.8× | 4th cheapest of 7 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 2.9× | -0.7× | 3rd most indebted of 9 |
| Bond spread | 109 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles River Laboratories CRL | United States | $16.1B | +90% | -1% | 15% | 26.6× | 25.3% | +6.6% |
| ICON ICLR | United States | $15.3B | +64% | +1% | 10% | 18.2× | 16.3% | +24.2% |
| Medpace MEDP | United States | $18.3B | +54% | +20% | 21% | 33.9× | 22.1% | +22.3% |
| WuXi XDC Cayman 2268.HK | Hong Kong | $11.4B | +23% | +42% | 28% | 39.5× | 22.0% | +126.4% |
| Eisai 4523.T | Japan | $8.68B | +4% | +7% | 5% | 24.2× | 11.8% | +5.0% |
| Progyny PGNY | United States | $2.67B | +47% | +6% | 9% | 22.7× | 10.4% | +30.2% |
| Fortrea FTRE | United States | $2.12B | +42% | -3% | 2% | 22.8× | 32.9% | +1.1% |
| Silence Therapeutics PLC Sponsored ADR SLN | United States | $1.23B | +184% | -97% | -10,478% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| OmniAb OABI | United States | $734M | +29% | +91% | -116% | n/a | 59.6% | -31.9% |
| Evotec EVT.DE | Germany | $630M | -33% | -8% | -19% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Adlai Nortye Ltd. Sponsored ADR ANL | United States | $619M | -23% | n/a | -134% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| SBC Medical SBC | United States | $518M | +58% | -7% | 37% | 10.3× | -16.1% | -6.9% |
| Evolent Health EVH | United States | $518M | +10% | -4% | -1% | 12.1× | 22.6% | +15.2% |
| Oculis OCS | United States | $462M | -77% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Tectonic Therapeutic TECX | United States | $403M | -29% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Charles River Laboratories has 1 bond outstanding with $500M face value. The agencies rate it BB; its bonds trade like BBB-. Weighted yield 5.80%, a spread of 109 bp over government bonds.
Charles River Laboratories reported $675M of remaining performance obligations at 26 Sep 2026, up 4% from a year earlier and down 4% from the previous quarter. That is 0.2 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 0.97.