Breaking Down Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors

You're looking at Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) right now and wondering if the environmental services leader can sustain its margin expansion against broader economic headwinds, and honestly, the latest numbers paint a clear picture. The company just delivered a solid Q3 2025, reporting $1.55 billion in revenue and a net income of $118.8 million, which is defintely a testament to their operational discipline. More importantly, management revised their full-year 2025 guidance, now anticipating Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $1.155 billion to $1.175 billion, representing about 4% year-over-year growth, plus they raised their Adjusted Free Cash Flow expectation to a midpoint of $475 million. That kind of cash generation-a significant increase from the prior year-shows their core waste disposal and recycling assets are firing on all cylinders, especially with Technical Services revenue growing by 12%. But still, with the stock trading around $208 and the average analyst price target sitting at $254.58, the question isn't just about current performance; it's about how their $210 million to $220 million investment in the new re-refinery byproduct facility will translate into long-term shareholder value. Let's break down the mechanics of this business to see where the real risks and opportunities lie.

Revenue Analysis

You need to know where the money is coming from, and for Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH), the story in 2025 is about resilient core disposal demand offsetting softness in some cyclical areas. The primary takeaway is that their Environmental Services segment is the engine, accounting for roughly 84% of total revenue, and its pricing power is holding up strong. The trailing twelve months (TTM) revenue ending September 30, 2025, hit $5.96 billion, representing a solid, albeit moderate, 2.85% growth year-over-year.

Here's the quick math on their core revenue streams, which are split into two main segments: Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions (SKSS). The ES segment is the heavy lifter, encompassing Technical Services, Field Services, and Industrial Services. SKSS focuses on used oil collection, re-refining, and solvent services.

The revenue breakdown for the first three quarters of 2025 shows where the growth-and the pressure points-lie:

• Environmental Services (ES): This segment drove the top line, with Q3 2025 revenue at approximately $1.3 billion, up 2.6% from the prior year. This growth is fueled by high-value disposal work.
• Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions (SKSS): The segment posted 9% revenue growth in Q1 2025, reaching $222.7 million, but faced persistent pricing headwinds in the base oil market throughout the year.

What this estimate hides is the internal segment volatility. While overall revenue growth is modest at 2.85% TTM, the underlying components tell a more nuanced story. For instance, the demand for their disposal assets-incinerators and landfills-is exceptionally strong, with incineration utilization (excluding the new Kimball incinerator) hitting an impressive 92% in Q3 2025. Landfill volumes were also up by a massive 40% in Q3, driven by project strength.

But not all services are booming. The Industrial Services business saw a 10% revenue decline in Q1 2025 as refinery customers continued to delay maintenance and turnaround spending, a common reaction to economic uncertainty. Also, Field Services revenue declined in Q3 2025 due to fewer large-scale emergency response projects compared to the prior year. This is a cyclical business, so you need to watch those capital expenditure cycles. You can dive deeper into the investor base and market sentiment by Exploring Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

A significant, high-growth change you should defintely note is the rise of the specialized Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substance (PFAS) treatment business. Clean Harbors, Inc. expects this specific service to generate between $100 million and $120 million in revenue for the full year 2025, a substantial new stream driven by regulatory tailwinds and a clear environmental need.

Here is a snapshot of the quarterly revenue performance in 2025:

Profitability Metrics

You're looking for a clear picture of Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) profitability, not just a set of isolated numbers. The direct takeaway is that while the company's gross and operating margins are slightly below the environmental services industry average, its operational discipline in core segments is driving consistent margin expansion, particularly in Environmental Services (ES).

For the 2025 fiscal year, the company is on track to deliver strong bottom-line results, with management reiterating its guidance for GAAP Net Income in the range of $379 million to $400 million. This performance is underpinned by a focus on cost management and pricing strategies, which is critical in a capital-intensive business like hazardous waste disposal.

Here's the quick math on Clean Harbors, Inc.'s core profitability ratios, using the most recent trailing twelve months (TTM) and full-year 2025 guidance figures:

To be fair, the Gross Profit Margin of 31.11% is a bit lower than the industry average of 34.65%, but this is often a function of Clean Harbors, Inc.'s broad service offerings, which include lower-margin Field Services alongside their high-margin disposal assets. The real story is in the trend and operational efficiency, which is defintely improving.

In terms of trends, the Environmental Services (ES) segment, which includes their high-barrier-to-entry disposal network, is the powerhouse. This segment achieved its 14th consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement in Adjusted EBITDA margin in Q3 2025, with the margin expanding by 120 basis points to 26.8%. This is a phenomenal run of operational execution, and it shows the leverage in their network of permitted facilities.

The management team has been clear: margin improvement is driven by a two-pronged strategy:

• Executing on pricing strategies, which is a sign of pricing power. [cite: 3, 4, 16 in first search]
• Sharp focus on cost mitigation, specifically lowering the overall cost structure through SG&A (Selling, General, and Administrative) spend control. [cite: 3 in first search]

Also, the utilization rate of their incineration assets-a key operational efficiency metric-was robust at 92% in Q3 2025, which translates directly into better gross margins for that high-value service line. [cite: 16 in first search] The company is effectively managing costs and driving operating efficiencies, even while facing some macroeconomic headwinds in segments like Field and Industrial Services. This resilience is a hallmark of a mature, well-run business. If you want to dive deeper into who is betting on this performance, check out Exploring Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Debt vs. Equity Structure

You're looking at Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) and trying to figure out if their balance sheet is built on a solid foundation or a pile of IOUs. The direct takeaway is that Clean Harbors, Inc. maintains a balanced capital structure, using debt strategically for growth and refinancing while keeping its leverage in line with, or slightly below, the specialized industry median.

As of the third quarter of 2025, Clean Harbors, Inc.'s total debt is manageable. Specifically, the company carries $2,937 million in long-term debt and capital lease obligations, plus a relatively small amount of $87 million in short-term debt and capital lease obligations. This shows a clear preference for long-term financing, which is typical for a capital-intensive business like environmental services. The total stockholders' equity stood at $2,776 million for the same period.

Leverage and Industry Benchmarks

The Debt-to-Equity (D/E) ratio is the key metric here-it tells you how much debt the company uses to finance its assets relative to the value of its shareholders' equity. Clean Harbors, Inc.'s D/E ratio as of September 2025 was 1.09. This means for every dollar of equity, the company uses about $1.09 of debt. That's a healthy number for this sector.

To be fair, capital-intensive industries often run higher D/E ratios than, say, a software company. The median D/E ratio for the Hazardous Waste Management industry in 2024 was around 1.11.

• Clean Harbors, Inc. D/E (Sep. 2025): 1.09
• Hazardous Waste Management Industry Median D/E (2024): 1.11

Recent Refinancing and Credit Strength

Clean Harbors, Inc. has been actively managing its debt profile to lock in favorable rates and extend maturities. Just in October 2025, the company executed a significant refinancing move. They issued $745 million in 5.750% senior notes due in 2033 and secured $1.26 billion in new term loans. This was used to pay off older, more expensive debt, including redeeming $545 million of 4.875% senior notes due in 2027. That's smart treasury management.

Here's the quick math on the refinancing: They are extending the maturity profile of their debt while consolidating it. The market is recognizing this stability. In March 2025, Moody's upgraded Clean Harbors, Inc.'s Corporate Family Rating (CFR) to Ba1 from Ba2. Also, S&P Global Ratings assigned a 'BBB-' issue-level rating to a proposed $1.157 billion secured term loan in September 2025. These upgrades and ratings, which are just shy of investment grade, reflect improving credit metrics and a strong business model, which is good news for the cost of future borrowing. You can read more about this in Breaking Down Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Liquidity and Solvency

You need to know if Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) can cover its short-term bills and sustain its operations, especially with all the new investment planned. The direct takeaway is that Clean Harbors, Inc. has a strong liquidity profile, indicated by its high current and quick ratios and robust cash flow generation, which gives it a significant cushion against near-term economic shifts.

Looking at the latest twelve months of data, the company's liquidity position is defintely solid. The Current Ratio sits at approximately 2.44, meaning Clean Harbors, Inc. has $2.44 in current assets for every dollar of current liabilities. This is well above the typical 1.5x-2.0x comfort zone for a healthy industrial services firm. Even more telling is the Quick Ratio (or acid-test ratio), which excludes inventory, at about 2.07. A Quick Ratio over 1.0x is great, and 2.07 signals that the company can cover its immediate obligations even if it couldn't sell any of its inventory quickly.

Here's the quick math on what those ratios mean in practice:

• Current Ratio (2.44): Shows ample working capital to manage daily operations.
• Quick Ratio (2.07): Indicates high ability to meet short-term debt without relying on inventory sales.

The working capital trend is healthy, too. While the business experiences seasonal working capital increases, which can temporarily pressure cash flow in certain quarters, the overall trend is supported by strong operational performance. The high liquidity ratios suggest that any short-term working capital needs are easily managed by existing liquid assets. This operational strength is what allows the company to focus on long-term initiatives, like its Mission Statement, Vision, & Core Values of Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH).

The cash flow statement overview for the 2025 fiscal year confirms this financial flexibility. Management raised its full-year 2025 Adjusted Free Cash Flow (FCF) guidance to a midpoint of $475 million, with a range of $455 million to $495 million. This FCF is projected to be more than a 30% increase from the prior year, which is a huge positive for shareholders and future investment.

This strong FCF is built on solid Net Cash from Operating Activities (OCF), which is anticipated to be in the range of $795 million to $865 million for the full year 2025. This OCF is what funds the company's capital expenditures (CapEx) and financing activities:

The investing cash flow is manageable, with routine CapEx of $345 million to $375 million expected for 2025. Plus, the company announced a significant growth investment of $210 million to $220 million in a new facility, but that is spread over time, not an immediate, overwhelming drain. On the financing side, Clean Harbors, Inc. is actively using its cash to repurchase shares, spending $50 million in Q3 2025 alone, demonstrating confidence in its capital structure and cash generation. The liquidity position is a clear strength, not a concern, giving management the flexibility to invest for the long-term while still returning capital to you, the investor.

Valuation Analysis

Is Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) overvalued or undervalued? The quick answer is that the market is pricing in significant future growth, making the stock look expensive on traditional metrics, but analysts still see an upside of over 20% in the near term.

As a seasoned analyst, I look at three core valuation multiples to map out the picture: Price-to-Earnings (P/E), Price-to-Book (P/B), and Enterprise Value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA). Honestly, the numbers suggest a premium valuation, which means the stock is not cheap right now.

• Price-to-Earnings (P/E): Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) trades at a trailing P/E ratio of roughly 28.8x as of November 2025. This is higher than the industry average of about 21.8x, suggesting investors are willing to pay more for each dollar of current earnings, betting on its growth trajectory.
• Price-to-Book (P/B): The P/B ratio stands at approximately 4.03. This multiple tells you that the stock trades at four times its net asset value, which is a strong premium and points to a business with valuable intangible assets or high expected returns on equity.
• Enterprise Value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA): The TTM (Trailing Twelve Months) EV/EBITDA is around 11.84. This is a more capital-structure-neutral metric, and while it's not wildly high for a market leader in environmental services, it's defintely not a deep-value play.

Here's the quick math on the forward view: Analysts forecast 2025 Earnings Per Share (EPS) around $7.34, which gives a Forward P/E of about 28.5 based on the recent stock price of $209.28. The valuation is aggressive, but the company is delivering: Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) recently revised its full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA guidance to a midpoint of $1.165 billion.

The stock price trend over the last 12 months is mixed, which is where the realism comes in. The stock price fell by nearly 15% over the past year, but it has seen a sharp rebound, gaining almost 15% in the four weeks leading up to mid-November 2025. The 52-week range of $178.29 to $263.43 shows a volatile ride. This volatility is the market grappling with the premium valuation against strong operational performance, especially in Technical Services.

The company does not pay a dividend; the TTM dividend yield is 0.00%. So, you are buying a pure growth and capital appreciation story, not an income play. This is a common trade-off for companies prioritizing reinvestment into high-return assets like their incineration network or new PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) opportunities.

Analyst consensus leans bullish, which is important. The average analyst rating is a 'Buy' or 'Moderate Buy.' The consensus price target is around $252.90, suggesting a potential upside of over 20% from the current price. The highest target is an optimistic $285.00. What this estimate hides is the risk of any slowdown in industrial waste generation or a dip in used oil re-refining margins.

To be fair, the market is giving Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) credit for its strong competitive moat, but you need to understand the growth drivers to justify this price. For a deeper dive into who is buying and why, you should read Exploring Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) Investor Profile: Who's Buying and Why?

Your next step: Compare Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH)'s EV/EBITDA of 11.84 against its closest peers to see if the premium is justified by its unique asset base.

Risk Factors

You're looking at Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) because its core business-handling hazardous waste-is a powerful secular trend. But even a market leader with hard-to-replicate assets faces real, near-term headwinds you need to map out. The biggest risks right now stem from cyclical industrial demand and commodity price volatility, not a lack of long-term environmental tailwinds.

The company's third-quarter 2025 earnings, reported on October 29, 2025, showed the pressure points clearly. While revenue was $1.55 billion, net income of $118.8 million missed analyst expectations, leading to a downward revision of the full-year Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) guidance. Here's the quick math: the full-year 2025 Adjusted EBITDA guidance was revised to a midpoint of $1.165 billion, which is a modest 4% year-over-year growth, down from earlier projections.

Operational and Market Risks

The most immediate operational risk is the continued softness in Field and Industrial Services. Industrial demand, especially from refinery customers, has been sluggish, which means delayed maintenance and lower spending. For example, the Industrial Services business saw a 10% downturn in the first quarter of 2025 as refinery customers held back on maintenance. This segment is highly sensitive to the industrial economy's health. Also, a rise in corporate costs, including higher healthcare costs, was a factor in the Q3 2025 earnings miss.

The Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions (SKSS) segment, which re-refines used oil, faces a significant external risk: commodity price exposure. Specifically, weakness in the base oil and lubricants market directly pressures this segment's profitability. This is a constant battle against market cycles and evolving control technologies.

Strategic and Financial Risks

The company's growth strategy is capital-intensive, which introduces execution risk. Clean Harbors, Inc. is committing a substantial $210 million to $220 million to build a new solvent de-asphalting (SDA) facility. This is a strategic investment to convert a re-refining byproduct into high-value 600N base oil, but it ties up capital for a project not expected to launch until 2028. Sustained capital deployment is defintely a long-term play, but it eats into free cash flow in the near term if end-market weakness persists.

Mitigation strategies are in play, though. The company is actively counteracting the SKSS segment's commodity risk by shifting to higher charge-for-oil (CFO) pricing for collection services. Plus, they've been successful at cost management, improving their consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margin by 100 basis points in Q3 2025 through operating efficiencies.

The Environmental Services (ES) segment is the bright spot, benefiting from regulatory tailwinds like tightening PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) disposal rules. Clean Harbors, Inc. is capitalizing on this with capacity expansion, including the new Kimball incinerator, which added about 12% to North American incineration capacity. This new facility is expected to incinerate over 28,000 incremental tons in 2025.

Here is a quick view of the key risks and their associated mitigation efforts:

For a deeper dive into the valuation models and strategic positioning, read the full post: Breaking Down Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.

Growth Opportunities

You need to know where the next dollar of growth comes from, and for Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH), it's a clear story of regulatory tailwinds and leveraging their unmatched infrastructure. The company is projecting a full-year 2025 revenue of approximately $6.05 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) estimated at $7.53, driven by specialized services that competitors simply can't match.

The core growth engine for CLH is its Environmental Services (ES) segment, which benefits from increasing regulatory scrutiny. The market is acting as if new Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) disposal regulations are already in place, which is driving significant demand. This focus on PFAS is expected to generate between $100 million and $120 million in revenue for 2025, representing a 20% to 25% year-over-year increase.

Here's the quick math on profitability: The company is guiding for a 2025 Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) midpoint of $1.165 billion, and they raised their Adjusted Free Cash Flow guidance to a midpoint of $475 million, a more than 30% increase from the prior year. That cash flow gives them real flexibility for growth.

• Regulatory demand for PFAS destruction is a major catalyst.
• Incineration capacity is a key bottleneck they are solving.
• M&A remains a disciplined, active growth strategy.

Clean Harbors is also strategically investing in its Technical Services segment. The Kimball incinerator, a significant recent investment, is expected to process 28,000 tons of material and contribute $10 million in EBITDA during 2025 as it ramps up. Plus, they are making a major internal investment of between $210 million and $220 million to build a Solvent De-Asphalting (SDA) unit. This technology will convert a re-refining byproduct into a high-value base oil, a smart move that should generate an estimated $30 million to $40 million in annual EBITDA once commercially launched in 2028. This is how you build long-term value, by turning waste into a higher-value product.

The company's competitive advantage is simple: their vast, vertically integrated network of permitted treatment, storage, and disposal (TSD) facilities across North America. It's a huge barrier to entry for any new player. They also continue to expand their physical footprint, having opened 13 new field service branches this year alone, which enhances their emergency response and field services capabilities. The recent acquisition of HEPACO (in 2024) is still providing terrific returns and synergies in this segment. They defintely see themselves as a growth company, actively evaluating both bolt-on and larger acquisitions.

Here is a snapshot of the forward-looking financial estimates for Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) for the 2025 fiscal year:

To dive deeper into the financial mechanics that underpin these projections, you can read the full post here: Breaking Down Clean Harbors, Inc. (CLH) Financial Health: Key Insights for Investors.