CHARLES RIVER LABORATORIES INTERNATIONAL, INC. 8-K

What Happened
Charles River Laboratories (CRL) filed an 8-K reporting preliminary fourth-quarter 2025 trends and a 2026 outlook at its presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Jan. 13, 2026. Management said Discovery & Safety Assessment (DSA) demand improved through H2 2025, with a preliminary DSA net book-to-bill of approximately 1.1x in Q4 2025. The company posted a slide presentation on its investor website. CRL also announced two planned acquisitions: K.F. (Cambodia) Ltd. (asset purchase, ~$510 million) expected to close early Q1 2026, and the remaining 79% of PathoQuest SAS (purchase price €51.6M, ~ $60M) expected to close by end of Q1 2026.

Key Details

• Preliminary Q4 2025 DSA net book-to-bill: ~1.1x (improvement driven by small/mid biotech and increased global biopharma bookings).
• K.F. (Cambodia) Ltd.: purchase price ~ $510M (subject to adjustments); expected to be integrated into DSA supply operations; not expected to generate meaningful third‑party revenue; accretive to non‑GAAP EPS by ~ $0.25 in 2026 and ~ $0.60 in 2027.
• PathoQuest SAS: CRL exercised option to buy remaining 79% for €51.6M (~$60M); PathoQuest expected to generate ~$15–20M revenue in 2026; transaction not expected to materially affect CRL’s 2026–2027 GAAP or non‑GAAP results.
• 2026 outlook highlights: management expects the top end of 2026 guidance organic revenue growth to be at least flat (consolidated and DSA); FX expected to add ~100–150 bps to reported revenue growth; incremental cost savings >$100M in 2026 to help offset inflation and support non‑GAAP operating margin.

Why It Matters
Improving DSA demand and a Q4 book‑to‑bill above 1.0 suggest customer activity may be recovering, which management expects could help return CRL to revenue growth in H2 2026. The K.F. acquisition vertically integrates CRL’s primate supply (with near‑term EPS accretion guidance), while PathoQuest strengthens its NGS testing capabilities for biologics manufacturing. Investors should note these figures are preliminary and unaudited; CRL warned actual audited results could differ materially. The slide deck is available on CRL’s Investor Relations site for more detail.