CluenexBio-Rad Laboratories BIO
Bio-Rad Laboratories scores weak on business quality (3.3 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Bio-Rad Laboratories does
Bio-Rad Laboratories manufactures life science research products and clinical diagnostics, selling reagents, apparatus, and test kits to hospitals, universities, and drug companies. The business is navigating slow top-line movement while managing its cash position.
- What it does best
Bio-Rad excels at cash generation relative to its revenue base, printing an FCF margin of 50th sector percentile. This conversion power stems from entrenched customer relationships in clinical diagnostics labs, where switching reagent platforms creates high friction.
- The main risk
Interest coverage sitting at 0.96x leaves the firm vulnerable, meaning operating earnings do not fully cover interest expenses and debt service requires drawing on its $1.5B cash pile.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin sits at a thin 1.8%, putting it in the 12th sector percentile while net margin is 8.6%. Profitability remains constrained by cost structures, meaning scale does not currently translate to wider operating margins.
A weak moat anchored by laboratory workflow integration locks in clinical technicians. It ranks in the 28th percentile for gross margin at 51.9%, trailing peer TECH at 66.3% due to limited pricing power.
Revenue growth crawls at 0.7%, landing in the bottom quartile of its sector at the 12th percentile. This stagnation is a multi-year trend visible as annual sales drift down from past peaks.
Debt-to-equity is low at 0.16x and net debt is negative at -$338M, backed by free cash flow of $353M. The balance sheet cushion is adequate, but getting softer as interest coverage struggles.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on BIO
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Bio-Rad Laboratories scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (3.3 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health weak.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Oct 22, 2026, after the close.
See BIO today
- Today's verdict on BIO, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Bio-Rad Laboratories (BIO)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/bio/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.