Charles River Labs IntlCRLBUY ON WEAKNESSJan 12, 2022Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 05, 2026. Market Open.
CRL provides drug discovery and safety testing services and is now trading at 22.6 times' Forward P/E (historical averages range from 19x to 33x). In the last five years, revenue growth was quite healthy, averaging around 12% on average, largely driven through acquisitions. The balance sheet is slightly leveraged, with net debt of $2.8B and net debt/EBITDA of around 2.7x. The company has been growing and repurchasing shares over the last few years. It is a solid company in our view, but as might be expected the valuation is a little expensive given the high quality of the business (not excessive though at 22X earnings). Based on consensus estimates, sales are expected to grow by 2% this year and then normalize to around 7% over the next few years. Overall, an interesting name with strong growth and healthy cash generation. We would be comfortable owning it.
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