MeritValue

CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC.

CRLdata completeness 100%18 fiscal years on file
The thesis, from the filings

CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC. earns about 11% on invested capital, comfortably above its ~9% cost of capital, and has bought back 4% of its shares over 5 years — the marks of a durable business run for its owners. The estimate methods put fair value between $81.75 and $282.48 a share.Whether it’s worth owning at today’s price is the last question — and yours to answer, below.

i. The business — what you’d actually own
FigureFY 2021FY 2022FY 2023FY 2024FY 2025
Revenue$3.54B1$3.98B2$4.13B3$4.05B3$4.02B3
Net income$391M4$486.2M5$474.6M6$22.2M6−$144.3M6
Operating cash flow$760.8M7$619.6M8$683.9M9$734.6M9$737.6M9
Capital expenditure$228.8M10$324.7M11$318.5M12$233M12$219.2M12
Free cash flow (derived)$532M7$294.9M8$365.4M9$501.6M9$518.5M9
Total debt$101,00013$1.35M14$3.17M15$155,00016$166,00016
Cash & equivalents$241.2M17$233.9M18$276.8M19$194.6M20$213.8M20
Diluted shares51.4M51.3M51.5M51.6M49.6M

Superscripts are receipts. Each links to the SEC filing the number came from (full list at the bottom).

ii. Your slice — ownership made literal
If you owned
shares
Net assets behind them
$638.49
your share of equity
Profit it earned you last year
−$29.12
Free cash flow it threw off
$104.61
Debt you’d be carrying
$0.03

10 shares is a claim on $638.49 of net worth that earned you −$29.12 and generated $104.61 of cash last year, against $0.03 of debt.

iii. Is this a good business?
Moat signal · return on invested capital
11% avg · 5y
FY21 20%FY22 20%FY23 18%FY24 1%FY25 -3%

It earned about 11% on invested capital against a ~9% cost of capital — comfortably above the cost of funding, a moderate advantage.

seeing a moat in the numbers →
Management signal · capital allocation
−4% shares · 5y

Share count is down 4% over 5 years — management has been buying back stock, quietly handing owners a bigger slice. Total debt has risen 64% over the same window.

reading capital allocation →

Signals, not verdicts — read from the filings above. Numbers don’t prove a moat; they show its footprint. You decide.

iv. What it’s worth — engine v0.1.0

The 3 estimate methods that apply put fair value between $81.75 and $282.48 a share. They rest on different assumptions, so where they diverge is the story.

DCF · Growth Exit 10Y
$282.48
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears10
  • fcfGrowth9.7%
  • fcfBase$501.6M
DCF · Growth Exit 5Y
$223.02
assumptions (10)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • terminalGrowth2.5%
  • projectionYears5
  • fcfGrowth9.7%
  • fcfBase$501.6M
Earnings Power Value
$81.75
assumptions (8)
  • riskFreeRate4.7%
  • equityRiskPremium5.0%
  • beta100.0%
  • equityWeight85.0%
  • costOfDebtSpread1.5%
  • taxRate21.0%
  • normalizedEarnings$391M
  • growthAssumed0.0%
Graham Number
not applicable
diluted EPS missing or non-positive — Graham Number undefined

Different models answer different questions — which to trust when →

v. The price question — last, on purpose
Is today’s price fair?
See live price ↗
Type a price. The ledger answers.
Or set your own belief
FCF growth, next 5 years9.7%
Discount rate (WACC)8.93%
Terminal growth2.5%
At your growth, a share is worth $223.02
The three cases
Bear0.0%$148.91
Base9.7%$223.02
Bull14.7%$272.27

Bear/base/bull growth = 0% / filed history / history + 5pp. Type a price to see the return each case implies.

Default growth 9.7%= this company’s own filed history (median-to-median FCF CAGR, clamped 0–20%). Your adjustments are recorded anonymously. They become the “what do owners actually believe” dataset.

Sources — the receipts
  1. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-25 · accession 0001100682-24-000007 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  2. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001100682-25-000011 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  3. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-30 · accession 0001100682-26-000022 (RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax)
  4. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-25 · accession 0001100682-24-000007 (NetIncomeLoss)
  5. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001100682-25-000011 (NetIncomeLoss)
  6. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-30 · accession 0001100682-26-000022 (NetIncomeLoss)
  7. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-25 · accession 0001100682-24-000007 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  8. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001100682-25-000011 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  9. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-30 · accession 0001100682-26-000022 (NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities)
  10. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-25 · accession 0001100682-24-000007 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  11. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001100682-25-000011 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  12. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-30 · accession 0001100682-26-000022 (PaymentsToAcquireProductiveAssets)
  13. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-25 · accession 0001100682-23-000006 (LongTermDebtCurrent)
  14. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001100682-24-000007 (LongTermDebtCurrent)
  15. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-30 · accession 0001100682-25-000011 (LongTermDebtCurrent)
  16. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-28 · accession 0001100682-26-000022 (LongTermDebtCurrent)
  17. 10-K · period ending 2021-12-25 · accession 0001100682-23-000006 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  18. 10-K · period ending 2022-12-31 · accession 0001100682-24-000007 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  19. 10-K · period ending 2023-12-30 · accession 0001100682-25-000011 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)
  20. 10-K · period ending 2024-12-28 · accession 0001100682-26-000022 (CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue)