Charles River Laboratories (CRL) stock surged 13.62% during Wednesday's intraday trading session, driven by the company's second-quarter financial results that exceeded Wall Street expectations and an upward revision to its full-year profit outlook.

The contract drug developer reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.02, surpassing the analyst consensus estimate of $2.74 by approximately 10.2%. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.004 billion, beating the expected $975.7 million, despite a 2.7% year-over-year decline. The company also raised its 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $11.15 to $11.45, up from the prior view of $10.80 to $11.30 and above the FactSet consensus of $11.11.

CEO Birgit Girshick attributed the strong performance to an improving demand environment, noting broad-based strength across global biopharmaceutical and biotechnology clients. The Discovery and Safety Assessment segment saw higher study volumes for regulated safety assessment services, while the Manufacturing segment delivered better-than-expected results. The raised guidance reflects expected operational outperformance, primarily from improving demand trends in the DSA segment and better manufacturing performance.