CluenexClean Harbors CLH
Clean Harbors scores weak on business quality (4.2 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Clean Harbors does
Clean Harbors provides environmental and industrial services, turning waste management and emergency spill response into recurring revenue paid by industrial clients.
- What it does best
Clean Harbors dominates hazardous waste management through a scarce network of permitted incinerators and landfills, delivering a 32.2% gross margin that outpaces many broader peers. These permits create high regulatory entry barriers protecting its core pricing power.
- The main risk
Carrying $3.0B of total debt with interest coverage at 4.4x leaves the business vulnerable to rising borrowing costs or any sharp contraction in industrial output that squeezes operating cash flow.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin sits at 11.7% and FCF margin at 7.3%, delivering soft profitability that fails to scale efficiently against rising cost pressures.
Strict environmental permits anchor a moderate moat protecting waste disposal sites from new entrants, though its 39th sector percentile in operating margin shows limited pricing shelter.
Revenue growth crawled to 2.4% over the latest period, slowing down relative to its multi-year expansion history as industrial demand cools.
Total debt sits at $3.0B against $954M in cash, leaving interest coverage at 4.4x. Free cash flow reached $458M, showing a softer balance-sheet foundation overall.
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.
2 sold $1.1M outside pre-planned sales.
Our sealed record on CLH
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
Clean Harbors scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (4.2 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health fair.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: 2 sold $1.1M outside pre-planned sales.
Oct 28, 2026, before the open.
See CLH today
- Today's verdict on CLH, 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, “Clean Harbors (CLH)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/clh/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.