Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB) vs. Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) Head to Head Survey

Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) and Pacific Biosciences of California (NASDAQ:PACB) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

Charles River Laboratories International has a beta of 1.4, meaning that its share price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pacific Biosciences of California has a beta of 2.31, meaning that its share price is 131% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Charles River Laboratories International and Pacific Biosciences of California, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Charles River Laboratories International	1	3	12	0	2.69
Pacific Biosciences of California	2	2	1	0	1.80

Charles River Laboratories International presently has a consensus price target of $255.65, indicating a potential downside of 11.66%. Pacific Biosciences of California has a consensus price target of $1.83, indicating a potential upside of 35.80%. Given Pacific Biosciences of California’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pacific Biosciences of California is more favorable than Charles River Laboratories International.

Profitability

This table compares Charles River Laboratories International and Pacific Biosciences of California’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%
Pacific Biosciences of California	-82.49%	-5,752.12%	-19.52%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Charles River Laboratories International and Pacific Biosciences of California”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	$4.02 billion	3.44	-$144.34 million	($4.85)	-59.67
Pacific Biosciences of California	$160.01 million	2.62	-$546.38 million	($0.43)	-3.14

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.9% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by institutional investors. 1.3% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Pacific Biosciences of California shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Charles River Laboratories International beats Pacific Biosciences of California on 9 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 Pacific Biosciences of California

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. designs, develops, and manufactures sequencing solution to resolve genetically complex problems. The company provides sequencing systems; consumable products, including single molecule real-time (SMRT) technology; long-red sequencing; and various reagent kits designed for specific workflow, such as preparation kit to convert DNA into SMRTbell double-stranded DNA library formats, including molecular biology reagents, such as ligase, buffers, and exonucleases. It also offers binding kits, such as modified DNA polymerase used to bind SMRTbell libraries to the polymerase in preparation for sequencing; and sequencing kits comprise reagents required for on-instrument, real-time sequencing, including the phospholinked nucleotides. In addition, it provides revio system + sequel systems which conduct, monitor, and analyze single-molecule biochemical reactions in real time; SBB short-read sequencing; onso instrument conducts, monitors, and analyzes SBB biochemical reactions; and SBB consumable, including flow cells, clustering, and sequencing reagent kits. The company serves academic and governmental research institutions; commercial testing and service laboratories; genome centers; public health labs, hospitals and clinical research institutes, and contract research organizations; pharmaceutical companies; and agricultural companies. It markets its products through a sales force and distribution partners in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It has a development and commercialization agreement with Invitae Corporation; and a collaboration with Radboud University Medical to explore genetic causes of rare and genetic diseases. The company was formerly known as Nanofluidics, Inc. and changed its name to Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. in 2005. Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.