At a glance
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc is worth $10.30B, about 14 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 0.7% to $2.58B in fiscal 2025, with 29.4% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 0.3% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $1.19B buying back its shares over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned +16.6% over the past year with dividends reinvested and −13.4% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 21.8% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 47.8% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%).
The business in plain English
Bio-Rad Laboratories makes the equipment and supplies that research scientists and hospital labs use to study and test biological samples. It offers instruments and systems along with reagents (the chemicals that make experiments and tests work) and consumables, the supplies labs use up and reorder. Revenue was $2.58 billion in the year ended December 31, 2025, split between two segments.
Clinical Diagnostics, the larger segment, brought in about $1.56 billion, or 60.5% of sales. It supplies several thousand products supporting more than 300 in vitro diagnostic tests, which measure substances in blood, urine or tissue samples outside the body. Customers are hospital, reference, transfusion and physician office labs. Much of this revenue repeats: once a lab standardizes on a Bio-Rad system, it keeps ordering the matching test kits for each sample it runs. Life Science, 39.5% of sales, provides tools to separate, purify and measure cells, proteins and genetic material for universities, drug and biotech companies, government agencies and food-testing labs.
The United States supplied 39.6% of 2025 sales, Europe 34.1%, Asia 19.9% and other regions, mainly Canada and Latin America, 6.4%. Competitors include Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher, Roche and Abbott Laboratories, and some have greater financial resources than Bio-Rad.
Price history
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BIO +16.6% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By business segment
| Clinical Diagnostics | $1.56B | 60.5% |
| Life Science | $1.02B | 39.5% |
By geography
| UNITED STATES | $1.02B | 39.6% |
| Europe | $881.8M | 34.1% |
| Asia | $513.3M | 19.9% |
| Other (primarily Canada and Latin America) | $165.4M | 6.4% |
Latest results
- In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $651.0M, down 0.1% from a year earlier, and net income was $371.4M (+16.9%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $2.58B (+0.7% year over year; +0.3% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 29.4% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +0.3% watch |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 1.8% weak |
| Free cash flow margin | 14.5% good |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 10.2% watch |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 7.2% watch |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $6.14B good |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $2.55B | $3.81B | $476.4M |
| FY2021 | $2.92B | $4.25B | $535.7M |
| FY2022 | $2.80B | $-3.63B | $81.6M |
| FY2023 | $2.67B | $-637.3M | $218.2M |
| FY2024 | $2.57B | $-1.84B | $289.6M |
| FY2025 | $2.58B | $759.9M | $374.6M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $10.30B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 13.8 |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BIO price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +27.1% | +16.6% | +12.5% | -13.4% | +9.3% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +27.1% |
| 2025 | -7.8% |
| 2024 | +1.7% |
| 2023 | -23.2% |
| 2022 | -44.4% |
| 2021 | +29.6% |
| 2020 | +57.5% |
| 2019 | +59.3% |
| 2018 | -2.7% |
| 2017 | +30.9% |
| 2016 | +31.5% |
| 2015 | +15.0% |
| 2014 | -2.5% |
| 2013 | +17.7% |
| 2012 | +9.4% |
| 2011 | -7.5% |
| 2010 | +7.7% |
| 2009 | +28.1% |
| 2008 | -27.3% |
| 2007 | +25.6% |
| 2006 | +26.1% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 45.2% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 50.9%, back to its old high 13.2 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 20.2% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 21.8%, back to its old high 1.1 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 47.8% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 47.8%, not recovered by the end of the data |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (23 read): 0 open-market purchases and 2 sales ($350K).
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 6, 2025 | James Barry EVP, President, LSG | sell | $214K |
| May 11, 2026 | Eva Anette Engelhardt EVP, President, CDG | sell | $136K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| First Eagle Investment Management, LLC | 11.4% | Jun 30, 2025 |
| The Vanguard Group - 23-1945930 | 8.37% | Sep 30, 2024 |
| BlackRock, Inc. | 7.4% | Sep 30, 2025 |
ETFs with the most weight in BIO
| MGRO VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat Growth ETF | 1.32% |
| WDNA WisdomTree BioRevolution Fund | 0.89% |
| MOTG VanEck Morningstar Global Wide Moat ETF | 0.71% |
| NIXT Research Affiliates Deletions ETF | 0.69% |
| MVAL VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat Value ETF | 0.66% |
| SMOT VanEck Morningstar SMID Moat ETF | 0.55% |
| GVLU Gotham 1000 Value ETF | 0.48% |
| XT iShares Exponential Technologies ETF | 0.44% |
What could go wrong
- Sartorius stake makes profits swing. Swings in the market value of Bio-Rad's Sartorius AG stake materially move reported profit. Bio-Rad also warns the stake might get it treated as an investment company, which faces strict rules written for funds.
- Schwartz family controls the vote. Bio-Rad has Class A and Class B shares, and the Schwartz family holds a significant majority of the voting stock. Outside shareholders have limited influence, and the company flags possible conflicts of interest.
- Research funding cuts have hit sales. Many Life Science customers, such as universities and government agencies, rely on government grants and research contracts. Bio-Rad says reduced government funding and customer capital spending have already hurt its revenue.
- Price pressure from rivals and payers. Rivals such as Thermo Fisher and Danaher compete hard, and long multi-year government tenders (bidding contests) have drawn aggressive pricing. In diagnostics, limits on what governments and insurers reimburse also restrain sales.
- Restructuring could disrupt the business. Bio-Rad warns that changes it has made and plans to make to its organizational structure could hurt the business. Its August 4, 2026 filing with quarterly results also reported restructuring or exit costs.
- Most sales come from outside the US. About 60% of 2025 sales came from outside the US, bringing currency swings, tariffs and other trade barriers, and anti-bribery compliance risk across a network that relies partly on distributors and agents.
Recent events
- Quarterly results released; Restructuring or exit costs; Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released; Investor presentation or announcement
- Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results
- Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released; Investor presentation or announcement
- Quarterly results released; Investor presentation or announcement
For income and retirement investors
Bio-Rad paid no dividends in fiscal 2021 through 2025, so there is no record of increases or payout ratio to judge. For an income investor, any return would come from share-price changes, and drawing cash would mean cashing in shares. The company has used share repurchases (buybacks) instead: $1.19 billion over 2021–2025, including $295.5 million in 2025, when free cash flow (cash left after running the business and paying for equipment) was $374.6 million.
Bio-Rad shares have fallen hard in past downturns. In the 2008 financial crisis they dropped 50.9% from their August 2008 peak and regained it in April 2010. In the 2020 COVID crash they fell 21.8% and recovered within about a month of the low. In the 2022 bear market they fell 47.8% between January and October and had not regained that peak as of October 28, 2026. A single stock like Bio-Rad carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Bio-Rad make money?
Bio-Rad makes money from lab instruments and the reagents (lab chemicals), test kits and other supplies that labs reorder to keep them running. In 2025, Clinical Diagnostics brought in about $1.56 billion, or 60.5% of $2.58 billion in sales, from hospital, reference and other clinical labs that keep ordering test kits for systems they have installed. Life Science, 39.5% of sales, provides research tools to universities, drug and biotech companies, government agencies and food-testing labs.
Does Bio-Rad pay a dividend?
No. Bio-Rad paid no dividends in fiscal 2021 through 2025. It returned cash through share repurchases (buybacks) instead, spending $1.19 billion over those five years, including $295.5 million in 2025. Buybacks can raise each remaining share's slice of future profits, but they pay holders no cash. Investors who rely on regular income from their holdings would have to cash in shares to get it from Bio-Rad.
Why does Bio-Rad's profit swing so much?
A big reason is its stake in Sartorius AG. The company says changes in that stake's market value materially affect its results, and it has taken losses from write-downs of its financial investments. Net income was $3.8 billion in 2020, a $3.6 billion loss in 2022, a $1.8 billion loss in 2024 and $759.9 million in 2025. Operating income, the profit from running the business itself, was only $47.2 million in 2025, on sales of $2.58 billion.
Who controls Bio-Rad Laboratories?
The Schwartz family holds a significant majority of Bio-Rad's voting stock, which gives it control over shareholder votes. Bio-Rad warns this could lead to conflicts of interest. Large fund managers also report sizable stakes in ownership filings: First Eagle Investment Management at 11.4% as of June 30, 2025, BlackRock at 7.4% as of September 30, 2025, and Vanguard at 8.37% as of September 30, 2024.
How has Bio-Rad stock performed?
Unevenly. As of October 28, 2026, the share price was down 51% over five years, including drops of 44.35% in 2022 and 23.21% in 2023. Over longer and shorter spans it did better: up 144% over 10 years, about 9.3% a year, and up 16.6% over one year. These are price changes only. Across about 21 years of price history, its deepest fall from a peak was 73.8%.