Charles River Laboratories 2Q26 First Take: Strong Bookings Growth Drives Guidance Raise

Research evidence excerpt

J P M O R G A N

North America Equity Research

05 August 2026

Charles River Laboratories

2Q26 First Take: Strong Bookings Growth Drives

Guidance Raise

Neutral

CRL, CRL US

Price (04 Aug 26):$234.12

Life Science Tools & Diagnostics

This morning, CRL reported (press release/presentation) 2Q results above the

Street, with 2026 non-GAAP guidance raised. Specifically, 2Q revenues of $1.0B

grew +0.1% organic (vs. Street of -1.9%), translating to adj. EPS of $3.02 (vs.

Street of $2.74). Looking ahead, CRL raised its 2026 organic revenue growth

guide, calling for 0.0% to +1.0% (vs. Street of -0.5% and prior guide of -1.5% to

-0.5%) but reiterated the adj. OPM at ~21.0-21.3% (vs. Street of 21.1%),

translating to adj. EPS of $11.15-11.45 (vs. Street of $11.12 and prior guide of

$10.80-11.30). Digging into the 2Q performance, CRL reported a DSA B2B of

1.19 (vs. 1.04 in 1Q26) which beat what we believed to be the buyside bar that was

closer to 1.1 (heading into the quarter we viewed the bar as 1.05 prior to the strong

clinical CRO prints that moved expectations higher, in our view), representing the

highest level in nearly 4 years, driven by broad-based improvement across global

biopharma and small/mid-sized biotech customers. CRL noted that it expects these

recent trends to drive improvements in DSA organic growth rate in 2H26. On the

RMS front, CRL yet again saw lower small model demand in North America which

was partially offset by solid demand in China for small research models. On the

call, we will look for more color on the strong DSA B2B, further color on demand

trends across biotech and pharma customers, and detail on the moving pieces of the

updated 2H margin guide.

Casey Woodring AC

(1-212) 622-9074

Marta Nazarovets Zaremba

(1-212) 622-6046

Jaden Rismay

(1-212) 622-8479

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC

2Q details. Total revenues of $1.0B (-2.7% reported, +0.1% organic) came in

above the guide of -LSD organic declines and above the Street at $976M, as

divestitures had a -3.8% impact and FX was a +0.8% tailwind. Across end

markets, management noted that global biopharma demand trends have been

gradually improving over the last 18 months and organic revenues from this

…