- Wondering if IDEXX Laboratories is trading at a price worth your attention? You are not alone, as investors continue to debate whether its current valuation truly matches future potential.
- Despite a brief dip of 1.0% over the last week and a minor decline over the past month, IDEXX shares have gained an impressive 53.5% year-to-date and are up nearly 40% in the past year.
- Recently, investor excitement has been fueled by developments in the veterinary diagnostics sector, including IDEXX's ongoing innovations and expanding presence in global markets. News around advancements in pet healthcare and partnership announcements with leading industry players have maintained bullish sentiment, even as the broader market faces uncertainty.
- But when it comes to pure numbers, IDEXX Laboratories currently holds a valuation score of 0 out of 6 for being undervalued across our standard checks. We will walk through these traditional approaches next and reveal a smarter lens for understanding value by the end of the article.
IDEXX Laboratories scores just 0/6 on our valuation checks. See what other red flags we found in the full valuation breakdown.
Approach 1: IDEXX Laboratories Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Analysis
The Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model is a classic valuation approach that projects a company’s future free cash flows and discounts them back to their present value. This method helps estimate what a business could be worth today based on expected cash generation in the years ahead.
For IDEXX Laboratories, the latest reported Free Cash Flow stands at $755.7 Million. According to analyst estimates, annual free cash flow is forecasted to grow steadily, projecting as high as $1.59 Billion by 2029. In fact, the model extends projections even further with extrapolated figures suggesting free cash flow could reach approximately $2.24 Billion by 2035. All these cash flows are calculated in US dollars and represent consistent long-term growth expectations for the company.
Using these inputs, the DCF model arrives at an estimated fair value for IDEXX Laboratories of $459.16 per share. However, this valuation indicates the current share price is about 36.7% above the company’s intrinsic value, making the stock appear significantly overvalued according to this approach.
Result: OVERVALUED
Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests IDEXX Laboratories may be overvalued by 36.7%. Discover 854 undervalued stocks or create your own screener to find better value opportunities.
Approach 2: IDEXX Laboratories Price vs Earnings
For profitable companies like IDEXX Laboratories, the Price-to-Earnings (PE) ratio is an especially relevant valuation tool. The PE ratio gives investors a quick view of how much they are paying for each dollar of earnings, making it a popular metric for assessing if a stock is expensive, cheap, or somewhere in the middle. However, what counts as a "normal" or "fair" PE ratio can differ widely based on how fast a company is expected to grow its earnings and the risks involved in achieving those results.
Currently, IDEXX Laboratories trades on a PE ratio of 51x, which is considerably higher than both its industry average of 28x and its peer average of about 27x. At first glance, this premium might raise concerns; however, these standard benchmarks ignore some key differentiators for IDEXX, including robust profit margins, impressive growth outlooks, and its scale within the Medical Equipment sector.
This is where Simply Wall St’s Fair Ratio comes into play. The Fair Ratio represents a customized multiple for IDEXX, incorporating not only its industry and market cap, but also the company’s unique growth prospects, profitability, and potential risks. According to this proprietary approach, IDEXX merits a Fair PE Ratio of 31.3x. Because this is significantly below the current 51x multiple, it suggests that the stock is priced higher than warranted by its fundamentals, even after accounting for its strong attributes.
Result: OVERVALUED
PE ratios tell one story, but what if the real opportunity lies elsewhere? Discover 1395 companies where insiders are betting big on explosive growth.
Upgrade Your Decision Making: Choose your IDEXX Laboratories Narrative
Earlier we mentioned that there is an even better way to understand valuation, so let us introduce you to Narratives. A Narrative is a simple but powerful investment tool. It is your personalized story about IDEXX Laboratories, connecting your views of its business drivers and market dynamics to specific financial forecasts and ultimately a fair value estimate.
Narratives allow investors to combine their own assumptions about future revenue, earnings growth, and profit margins into a structured forecast, putting the “why” behind your numbers. Rather than getting lost in isolated ratios, you can build a story that links qualitative beliefs with the numbers that matter, then see exactly what price makes sense for your thesis.
This approach is made easy and accessible on Simply Wall St’s platform within the Community page, where millions of investors are already creating and sharing their Narratives. The platform keeps these forecasts current, automatically updating values when new earnings or news emerges, so your perspective always reflects the latest information.
By comparing your Narrative-based Fair Value with IDEXX Laboratories’ current share price, you can identify opportunities to buy or sell in line with your outlook. For example, some investors following IDEXX Laboratories believe aggressive international growth will drive a fair value as high as $785 per share, while more cautious users, factoring in slower clinic adoption, set their fair value closer to $420. This shows exactly how different stories lead to different investing decisions.
Do you think there's more to the story for IDEXX Laboratories? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying!
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
Valuation is complex, but we're here to simplify it.
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