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what it is
Bio-Rad makes lab tools and test kits that help hospitals and researchers find disease and study chemicals.
how it gets paid
Last year Bio made $2.6B in revenue. Clinical diagnostics reagents and kits was the main engine at $1.05B, or 40% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 0.7% last year. The 1.7% currency-neutral sales drop mattered most because it showed the business was weaker underneath the reported revenue.
what just happened
Bio-Rad posted $653M in sales, but the core trend still slipped 1.7% on a currency-neutral basis.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
70/100 earnings predictability — reasonably predictable
26.4x trailing p/e — priced about right
5.0% return on capital — nothing to write home about
xvary composite: 52/100 — below average
What they do
Bio-Rad makes lab tools and test kits that help hospitals and researchers find disease and study chemicals.
Clinical diagnostics (tests that find disease) is 60% of sales, and life sciences (tools that separate and study samples) is 40%. That mix puts your products inside regulated lab routines. Switching vendors means retraining, new paperwork, and more error risk.
How they make money
$2.6B
annual revenue · their business grew +0.7% last year
Clinical diagnostics reagents and kits
$1.05B
Clinical diagnostics instruments and systems
$0.51B
Life sciences consumables
$0.78B
Life sciences instruments and software
$0.26B
The products that matter
testing and research tools
Clinical Diagnostics & Life Science Tools
$2.6B revenue
it is the full $2.6B business, and the key issue is growth. this page shows only +0.7% revenue growth overall, which means execution and end-market demand both matter more than narrative.
entire revenue base
Key numbers
$2.6B
annual revenue
You are looking at a $2.6B business that turns only 1.8% into operating profit. That is a thin cushion.
1.8%
operating margin
Every $100 of sales leaves $1.80 in operating profit. One bad quarter can chew through that fast.
26.4x
trailing p/e
You pay 26.4 times trailing earnings for a company with 0.7% revenue growth. That is a full-price check for a slow line.
3%
target upside
The stock sits only about 3% below the $271 target. The easy move is already mostly gone.
Financial health
B++
strength
- balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 45 / 100
- long-term debt $1.2B (13% of capital)
- net profit margin 13.2% — keeps 13 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 6% — $0.06 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in BIO 3 years ago → it's now worth $6,290.
The index would have given you $14,770.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
beat estimates
Bio-Rad posted $653M in sales, but the core trend still slipped 1.7% on a currency-neutral basis.
Sales landed in line with expectations, and adjusted EPS came in at $2.26. The ugly part was the 1.7% currency-neutral decline, which says the business was not firing underneath the reported dollars.
$653M
revenue
$2.26
eps
52.6%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The 1.7% currency-neutral sales drop mattered most because it showed the business was weaker underneath the reported revenue.
-
bio-rad’s 2025 third-quarter figures exceeded our estimates, but wall street was looking for more.
-
sales came in at $653 million, in line with our expectation, and translating to adjusted share earnings of $2.26, which beat our $1.95 call by a noticeable margin.
-
still, on a currency-neutral basis, the top line dipped 1.7%, highlighting poor underlying sales trends in bio’s end markets.management cited a tough environment with evolving conditions in both the life science and clinical diagnostics fields.
-
with that, the shares drifted lower.
-
all told, the quotation has dipped 10% in the last three months, leading to a price decline of closer to 15% in the trailing 12-month window.
source: company earnings report, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is continued weakness in life science and clinical diagnostics demand.
med
end-market softness
BIO's quarter showed revenue of $653M, up only +1% from a year ago, while the page also cites a 1.7% currency-neutral sales decline. that points to weak underlying demand, not just optics.
if demand stays soft, it pressures essentially the full $2.6B revenue base because this snapshot does not show a second engine stepping in.
med
sartorius stake volatility
the page explicitly flags a $1.5B investment in Sartorius as a drag. that means BIO is not a pure operating story. part of what you own moves with the value of that stake.
when the investment drags, it can muddy earnings and valuation even if the core lab-tools business stays stable.
med
low capital efficiency
return on capital is 3.5% and return on equity is 4%. those are not crisis numbers, but they are weak for a company investors might want to pay up for.
low returns leave less room for mistakes. if growth stalls, the market has no reason to rerate the stock higher.
med
institutional sponsorship fading
institutions have been net sellers for three straight quarters, with 176 buyers versus 184 sellers in 3q2025. that is not an exodus, but it is not support either.
when sponsorship fades during a weak growth patch, downside can last longer than fundamentals alone would suggest.
continued weak demand would hit the same $2.6B revenue base that already produces only a 3.5% return on capital, while the $1.5B Sartorius stake adds another source of volatility you do not fully control.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
whether revenue can do better than +0.7%
flat growth is the whole problem. if the top line cannot move meaningfully above last year's +0.7%, the rest of the thesis stays stuck.
earnings
next quarterly print
you want cleaner evidence that demand in life science and clinical diagnostics is improving, not just another quarter of "less bad".
risk
the sartorius overhang
the $1.5B stake has already been called a drag. if that continues, investors may keep valuing BIO as a messy sum of parts.
trend
institutional selling streak
three straight quarters of net selling is enough to matter. a reversal would not fix the business, but it would tell you the tape is getting less skeptical.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
below average
momentum score 4 — analysts see weaker price performance than the average stock from here.
risk profile
average
stability score 3 — this is neither a bunker stock nor a blowup profile.
momentum rank
top 20%
technical score 2 — in human-speak, the chart setup looks better than the business momentum does.
earnings predictability
70 / 100
the numbers are fairly readable, but a quarter like -$12.70 EPS reminds you non-operating noise can still hit hard.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net selling for 3 consecutive quarters — 176 buyers vs. 184 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 19.5M shares. net selling for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$160
$382
$263
current price
$271
target midpoint · +3% from current · 3-5yr high: $650 (+115% · 21% ann'l return)
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