Is Charles River Laboratories (CRL) A Worthy Stock Investment?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “SMID Cap Growth Strategy” third quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the third quarter, the ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy outperformed the benchmark Russell 2500 Growth Index. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains across five of the 10 sectors in which it was invested during the quarter (out of 11 sectors total), with the health care sector the leading contributor and the consumer discretionary sector being the main detractor. You can take a look at the fund’s top 5 holdings to have an idea about their best picks for 2021.

ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy, in its Q3 2021 investor letter, mentioned Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) and discussed its stance on the firm. Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. is a Wilmington, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company with a $21.3 billion market capitalization. CRL delivered a 47.76% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 46.68%. The stock closed at $124.96 per share on December 24, 2021.

Here is what ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy has to say about Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. in its Q3 2021 investor letter:

“The Strategy’s health care names continued to demonstrate resilience as providers of key products and services to enable scientific breakthroughs in therapeutics and medical devices.Charles River Laboratories also continues to benefit from M&A that has expanded its presence in supporting cell and gene therapy.”

Pixabay/Public Domain

Based on our calculations, Catalent, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) was not able to clinch a spot in our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. CRL was in 46 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 44 funds in the previous quarter. Catalent, Inc. (NYSE: CRL) delivered a -18.86% return in the past 3 months.

Earlier this year, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on CRL in another article. You can find more than 100 investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q3 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.