CRL US S&P 500Russell 1000 Earnings call · transcribed from the recording
Charles River Laboratories (CRL) · Q3 2026 results and valuation
Share price: $342.69 · 2026-11-11
Results Q3 2026 vs Q2 2026 · previous quarter · published 4 Nov 2026 and 5 Aug 2026
Net income turned to a profit from a loss last quarter, guidance raised. Management sounded upbeat, in its script and in answers to analysts.
Only a basic analysis is available for this company at the moment.
1 · Numbers
Turned profit
Net income vs Q2 2026
Guidance raised
Net income 333.1M vs -1.5M
Revenue −2.1%
2 · How management spoke
Upbeat
More upbeat than 72% of company calls
Answers to analysts: typical, in line with the script.
Similar to last call.
3 · What stood out
Key theme
The organic revenue growth rate in each of Charles River Laboratories' business segments also improved from second quarter levels.
Valuation
Is Charles River Laboratories undervalued?
Reverse DCF. Free cash flow from the last full fiscal year (2025-12-27), grown for 10 years, discounted back, plus a terminal value. “Implied growth” is the rate the current price assumes.
At 0.3% growth a year (3-year revenue growth), the model's fair value is $96.77 a share — the stock trades 254% above it. Today's price assumes 15.1% growth a year.
Current price
$342.69
close of 2026-11-11
Market implies growth of iThe yearly free-cash-flow growth, for the next 10 years, that today’s share price already assumes. If you believe the company grows faster than this, the stock is cheap under this model; slower, and it is expensive.
+15.1% for 10 yrs
Fair value / share
$96.77
Buy below
$72.58
Price vs fair value
Overvalued >200%
Price vs buy-below price
Overvalued >200%
Read between the lines
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Key theme
These are two examples of progress in Charles River Laboratories' Create the Future Transformation Program, which is expected to generate over $300…
Source quote
“These are two examples of progress in our Create the Future Transformation Program, which is expected to generate over $300... ...and provide greater transparency and collaboration for clients. We have also taken steps to continue to strengthen our scientific capabilities.”
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Guidance ↑
Based on its strong third-quarter financial performance, Charles River Laboratories is raising its full-year revenue guidance by 100 basis points to organic growth above 1.5 percent, and non-GAAP earnings per share...
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Guidance
Charles River Laboratories expects these collective trends to support the improvement to MIPS single-digit organic growth for the company in the second half of this year, as well as the projected margin improvement.
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Figure
As has been well-chronical, the biotech funding environment has improved meaningfully since the middle of last year, with trailing...
Tone
How upbeat the language was, compared with other companiesiTone counts positive minus negative finance words, adjusted for length. Executives mostly speak positively, so the labels compare each call with every company's latest call: “typical” is the middle third, “very upbeat” the top tenth, “cautious” the bottom tenth.. Dot: Q3 2026. Ring: Q2 2026.
Script and answers carried a similar tone, so the script's message held up under questioning.
Sentences that drove the tone
“We were encouraged by the acceleration of our revenue growth rate in the third quarter as we had anticipated, including solid, mid-single-digit organic growth in the DSA segment and high...”
“At this time, we expect a gradual improvement in 2027 from the organic growth rate in 2026, and assuming the favorable market trends continue, revenue growth increasing to the targeted...”
“DSA revenue growth improved to 5.9% organically in the third quarter, primarily driven by robust demand for safety assessment studies utilizing non-human primates as well as growth for bioanalysis services.”
Full figures
USD · SEC EDGAR XBRL (10-Q, period end 2026-09-26)
| Metric | Q3 2026period end 2026-09-26 | Q2 2026period end 2026-06-27 | Change | Q3 2025 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 982.7M | 1.00B | −2.1% | 1.00B | −2.2% |
| Operating income | 202.6M | 119.9M | +69.0% | 133.8M | +51.4% |
| Net income | 333.1M | -1.5M | Turned profit | 54.4M | +512.0% |
| EPS | 6.86 | -0.03 | Turned profit | 1.10 | +523.6% |
| P/E today 366.9 | 318.3 | 12-mo loss | — | 12-mo loss | — |
Topics
Most discussed now
- Moving to segment details, DSA revenue was $596 million in the third quarter, an increase of 5.9% on an organic...
- This is one of the reasons that the RMS growth rate has not yet begun to re-accelerate as it has...
- The DSA bookings improvement over the past four quarters, during which Each time Charles River Laboratories' netbook to bill has averaged...
- New They come in with the same regulatory process requirement than any other program would have.
- It was wonderful to see many of you at Charles River Laboratories' Investor Day just over one month ago, and I hope...
Faded since Q2 2026
- Fading Specific to your question on nonhuman primate supply, you obviously know and you referred to it that Charles River Laboratories has…
- Fading I would like to discuss the progress that Charles River Laboratories made during the second quarter, both financially and on its...
- Fading Just talk us through your expectations for the preclinical pipeline evolving from that smarter drug discovery and whether that seems...
- Fading What Charles River Laboratories is already seeing actually is that a lot of companies that are more AI native or drug discovery...
Latest announcements
Official filings, newest first.
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Director or officer change; Shareholder vote results · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K
- Regulation FD disclosure · SEC 8-K
- Director or officer change · SEC 8-K
- Results of operations · SEC 8-K