Comparing Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) & Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC)

Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) and Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Charles River Laboratories International has a beta of 1.4, indicating that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sotera Health has a beta of 1.77, indicating that its stock price is 77% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Charles River Laboratories International and Sotera Health”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Charles River Laboratories International	$4.00 billion	3.31	-$144.34 million	($4.85)	-57.20
Sotera Health	$1.16 billion	4.49	$77.94 million	$0.57	32.09

Sotera Health has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Charles River Laboratories International. Charles River Laboratories International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sotera Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.9% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Sotera Health shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.4% of Sotera Health shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Charles River Laboratories International and Sotera Health, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Charles River Laboratories International	1	3	11	0	2.67
Sotera Health	0	3	8	0	2.73

Charles River Laboratories International presently has a consensus price target of $273.81, suggesting a potential downside of 1.31%. Sotera Health has a consensus price target of $21.50, suggesting a potential upside of 17.55%. Given Sotera Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sotera Health is more favorable than Charles River Laboratories International.

Profitability

This table compares Charles River Laboratories International and Sotera Health’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Charles River Laboratories International	-5.96%	15.75%	6.51%
Sotera Health	13.44%	40.12%	7.55%

Summary

Sotera Health beats Charles River Laboratories International on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Charles River Laboratories International

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. provides drug discovery, non-clinical development, and safety testing services in the United States, Europe, Canada, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research Models and Services (RMS), Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA), and Manufacturing Solutions (Manufacturing). The RMS segment produces and sells rodents, and purpose-bred rats and mice for use by researchers. This segment also provides a range of services to assist its clients in supporting the use of research models in research and screening pre-clinical drug candidates, including research models, genetically engineered models and services, insourcing solutions, and research animal diagnostic services. The DSA segment offers early and in vivo discovery services for the identification and validation of novel targets, chemical compounds, and antibodies through delivery of preclinical drug and therapeutic candidates ready for safety assessment; and safety assessment services, such as toxicology, pathology, safety pharmacology, bioanalysis, drug metabolism, and pharmacokinetics services. The Manufacturing segment provides in vitro methods for conventional and rapid quality control testing of sterile and non-sterile pharmaceuticals and consumer products. This segment also offers specialized testing of biologics that are outsourced by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. It also provides contract vivarium operation services to biopharmaceutical clients. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.

About Sotera Health

Sotera Health Company engages in the provision of sterilization, lab testing, and advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Sterigenics, Nordion, and Nelson Labs. It provides mission-critical end-to-end sterilization services, including gamma and electron beam irradiation, and ethylene oxide processing, as well as designs, installs, and maintains gamma irradiation systems. The company also provides microbiological and analytical chemistry testing, as well as technical assistance, regulatory consulting, and advisory services. It serves medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food safety, agricultural products, cancer treatment, and high-performance materials industries, as well as commercial, advanced, and specialty application industries. The company was formerly known as Sotera Health Topco, Inc. and changed its name to Sotera Health Company in October 2020. Sotera Health Company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Broadview Heights, Ohio.