Aug 6 (Reuters) - Charles River Laboratories CRL.N on Wednesday raised its annual profit forecast, betting on growing demand for its drug discovery and development services from drugmakers, sending its shares up more than 4% in premarket trading.
The Wilmington, Massachusetts-based contract drug developer raised its 2025 adjusted profit forecast to $9.90 to $10.30 per share, compared with its previous projection of $9.30 to $9.80.
Contract research organizations, which reported quarterly results over the last month, have all posted better-than-expected profit, reflecting a rebound in spending from pharmaceutical and biotech clients after a cautious stretch driven by tighter sector financing.
Companies such as Danaher DHR.N, Medpace
"We are continuing to see clear signs that the biopharmaceutical demand is stabilizing, and in this environment, we are making gradual progress to return to organic revenue growth," Charles River CEO James Foster said.
The company now also expects its 2025 revenue to decline 0.5% to 2.5%, compared with its previous forecast of a 3.5% to 5.5% drop.
Charles River's second-quarter revenue came in at $1.03 billion, surpassing Wall Street estimates of $985.1 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company reported quarterly profit of $3.12 per share on an adjusted basis, compared with analysts' average estimate of $2.50.
Separately, Charles River also said that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had cleared its non-human primate (NHP) shipments from late 2022 and early 2023 for legal entry into the United States.
In 2023, the company suspended the shipment of NHPs from Cambodia as the Department of Justice and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated it over smuggling of wild long-tailed macaques to the U.S.
(Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
((Puyaan.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))