Quality Investor

Clean Harbors, Inc.

Rank #279Hypergrowth

CLH · NYSE · Industrials

Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) — Rank #279 by gross profitability (GP/assets 0.25) · ROE 14.1% · Piotroski F-Score 9 / 9.

As-of 2026-09-15 · CIK 0000822818 · all metrics point-in-time as of the filing date.

About

Clean Harbors, Inc. provides environmental and industrial services in the United States and Canada.

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The company operates through two segments: Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions. The Environmental Services segment collects, transports, treats, recycles, and disposes hazardous and non-hazardous waste, such as resource recovery, physical treatment, incineration, landfill disposal, wastewater treatment, lab chemicals disposal, and explosives management services; and offers CleanPack services, including collection, identification, categorization, specialized packaging, transportation, and disposal of laboratory chemicals and household hazardous waste. This segment also provides industrial maintenance and specialty industrial services; and utilizes specialty equipment and resources that perform field services. The Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions segment provides containerized waste, parts-washer, and vacuum services for automobile repair shops, car and truck dealers, metal fabricators, machine manufacturers, fleet maintenance shops, and other automotive, industrial, and retail customers; collects and transports for hazardous and non-hazardous containerized waste for recycling or disposal; machine cleaning and maintenance, and disposal and replenishment of clean solvent or aqueous fluids; and vacuum services to remove solids, residual oily water, and sludge and other fluids from customers' oil/water separators, sumps, and collection tanks, as well as removes and collects waste fluids found at large and small industrial locations, including metal fabricators, auto maintenance providers, and general manufacturers. This segment also manufactures, formulates, and packages lubricants and other products. Clean Harbors, Inc.

was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Norwell, Massachusetts.

Industry
Waste Management
Sector
Industrials
State
MA
Filer Category
Large accelerated filer
Fiscal Year End
December 31

Price History

CLH+214.5% · +25.8% CAGRSPY+80.5% · +12.5% CAGR

Company Snapshot

P/S is the primary valuation lens — earnings are reinvested, not available for P/E.

Market Cap

$16.97B

P/E (annual)

44.2

P/S (annual)

2.8

P/B

6.1

P/OCF (annual)

19.6

Shareholder Yield

6.6%

Employees

22,155

Industry

Waste Management

Exchange

NYSE

Signal Flags

3 green1 yellow
Revenue growth acceleratingGrowth rate increasing year over year
Operating leverage expandingOperating income growing faster than revenue
Sequential beat (rev + EPS)Both revenue and EPS exceeded prior quarter — 1-quarter streak
Disclosure regressionA previously-disclosed line item is no longer reported — worth checking the filing for why

Quality Profile

Profitability

1/1 pass
GP / assets
0.25
Return on equity
14.1%
Gross margin trend
PASS

Safety

1/1 pass
Balance-sheet safety
PASS
Debt / equity
1.72
Current ratio
2.34×
Net cash
-$2.10B

Cash Flow

3/3 pass
Positive FCF
PASS
Cash-backed earnings
PASS
Accruals healthy
PASS
SBC / revenue
0.5%

Growth

2/2 pass
Revenue growth
118.9%
Piotroski F-Score
9 / 9
Share dilution
-6.6%

Terry Smith quality gate

Passes 1/5 Terry Smith thresholds

1 of 5 threshold not computable from filed data.

What Growth Is Priced In

Implied revenue growth (10Y)

16.8%

fairly valued

The annual FCF growth rate today's price requires over a 10-year horizon (discount rate 10%, terminal growth 2.5%).

Buyback tailwind: -6.6% — per-share value needs a total required return of 10.2% once share-count change is priced in.

vs. own 6-year median revenue growth: 1.9%

priced above its own history

Cost-of-equity sensitivity (implied growth at different discount rates)

r = 8%

12.0%

r = 10% (base)

16.8%

r = 12%

21.0%

Net debt / market cap: 12.2%

Base FCF: $441.8M3Y mean FCF: $99.4M

Valuation History

Current multiple vs historical range at each filing date. Band spans 25th-75th percentile.

P / E

Price / diluted EPS

28.4xFair
9.0xmed 28.2x54.4x

P / S

Price / revenue per share

1.0xFair
0.7xmed 1.0x1.8x

P / B

Price / book value per share

2.4xFair
1.5xmed 2.3x4.0x

P / GP

Price / gross profit per share

3.2xFair
2.6xmed 3.2x3.9x

P / FCF

Price / free cash flow per share

24.1xFair
10.9xmed 23.1x115.5x

Revenue growth and the path to profitability (margin trend) are the primary reads at this stage.

Profitability

Gross profitability (GP / assets)

0.25

Primary signal (Novy-Marx).

1st of 8 SIC 49 peers

Return on equity

14.1%

Gross margin

31.3%

3rd of 8 SIC 49 peers

Revenue growth (YoY)

118.9%

Gross margin improving

Margin trend vs prior year.

PASS

Operating Leverage

2014201520162017
Revenue vs COGS
Revenue vs OpEx
Op. Income vs Revenue

Growth

Revenue CAGR (3Y)

Revenue CAGR (5Y)

Earnings CAGR (3Y)

-1.7%

FCF CAGR (3Y)

Anti-fragile safety

Balance-sheet safety

Composite anti-fragile check.

PASS

Debt / equity

1.72

2nd of 5 SIC 49 peers (best = lowest)

Current ratio

2.34×

2nd of 8 SIC 49 peers

Quick ratio

1.71×

Net cash

-$2.10B

Cash & equivalents minus total debt.

Cash-flow health

Free cash flow

$441.81M

Operating cash flow minus capex.

Positive free cash flow

PASS

FCF / net income

0.13

Cash-backing of earnings.

FCF/NI divergence

Unfavorable divergence (yellow flag).

PASS

Accruals healthy

Cash-backed earnings.

PASS

SBC / revenue

0.5%

Stock-based comp intensity.

Piotroski F-Score

F-Score

9 / 9

Fundamental-strength score (0-9).

Lifecycle Phase History

20122017
Op. Leverage
Hypergrowth
Startup
Capital Return
Decline
Value