CLH

CLEAN HARBORS INC

Industrials | Large Cap

$3.32

EPS Forecast

$1,750

Revenue Forecast

The company already released most recent quarter's earnings. We will publish our AI's next quarter's forecast around 2026-12-31

Clean Harbors Q3 2026: Revenue Growth, a Big Emergency, and a CEO Transition

For CLH, the quarter brought a 21% jump in revenue to $1.87 billion, an EPS of $3.93, and a significant leadership reshuffle as the company advances its environmental services machine into a new chapter. The release shows a company optimizing margins even as one-off events punch above their weight, and it leaves investors weighing the stability of leadership against the durability of demand.

Executive snapshot

  • Ticker: CLH (NYSE)
  • Revenue: $1.87 billion, +21% YoY
  • Net income: $208.1 million; EPS $3.93 per diluted share (vs $2.21 in 2025)
  • Adjusted EBITDA: $456.1 million; margin 24.4% (+370 bps YoY)
  • Free cash flow: Adjusted $323 million
  • Guidance: Raises 2026 guidance for Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow
  • Leadership: Eric Gerstenberg to become sole CEO on January 1; Mike Battles to retire as Co-CEO and board member at year-end
  • Operational metric: Total Recordable Incident Rate (YTD) 0.49

Quarterly details by segment

Environmental Services (ES) remains the engine, delivering a margin of 27.4% and marking an 18th straight quarter of year-over-year margin expansion. Within the mix, one substantial emergency response event contributed roughly $120 million of revenue at emergency response rates, underscoring how episodic demand can tilt quarterly optics even as the underlying business shows strength.

Field Services posted robust revenue growth, driven by volume and pricing momentum, with Technical Services up 3% as incineration utilization held steady around 87%. Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions (SKSS) surged 46% in Q3, with Adjusted EBITDA up 209% year over year, aided by favorable pricing for refined products and an improving mix. Industrial Services delivered modest gains as refinery turnaround activity remained softer.

Backlog and revenue progression appear constructive: deferred revenue rose about 20% on the back of a growing waste backlog and an expanding sales pipeline. The company also highlighted a solid safety trajectory, with a year-to-date TRIR of 0.49, on track to match its best historical performance.

Collectively, management framed the quarter as a blend of durable demand and profitable execution, culminating in record-adjusted free cash flow of $323 million for the period.

Leadership notes and strategic implications

The leadership shift is notable: Eric Gerstenberg will become the sole CEO on January 1, with Mike Battles retiring as Co-CEO and board member at year-end. Governance aside, the move tees up questions about strategic continuity in a period of growing ESG and PFAS-related opportunities. Investors will want to see whether a unified leadership approach accelerates progress on the company’s environmental-services agenda or tempers execution risk with tighter oversight.

Strategically, ES remains the growth lever, supported by pricing power and a backlog that hints at sustained top-line momentum. The healthcare of the portfolio—PFAS-related work, SKSS expansion, and cross-segment synergies—could influence how peers allocate capital and structure leadership in an industry where the demand cycle can be defined by large, project-driven opportunities rather than steady-state volume.

Market take: EPS, earnings surprise, and revenue forecast notes

The filing presents a solid set of year-over-year improvements in EPS and cash generation, but it does not publish an EPS consensus or an earnings surprise metric against sell-side expectations within the document. The reported EPS of $3.93 is a meaningful step up from $2.21 a year ago, underscoring strong profitability even as a large one-off emergency event affected the quarter’s cadence.

Revenue progress of $1.87 billion indicates robust demand for environmental and industrial services, though the release does not include a formal revenue forecast for the year beyond the raised guidance for Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Free Cash Flow. In practice, investors will infer the revenue outlook from management commentary and the tone of the updated guidance, rather than a single revenue target. The absence of explicit consensus data means today’s numbers read more as a demonstration of operating leverage and cash generation than as a clean beat against a published forecast.

Outlook and sector implications

The quarter reinforces a durable demand backdrop for environmental services, with ES margin expansion and a growing backlog suggesting progress into 2027. The large emergency-related revenue item is a reminder that large, time-sensitive projects can disproportionately influence quarterly results, even when the underlying demand remains steadier.

From a sector perspective, the combination of higher-margin ES activity, pricing discipline, and a push into SKSS and PFAS-related services could signal a broader cycle of margin recovery for peers with similar service lines. For investors, the question is whether the leadership transition will accelerate or re-anchor the company’s growth strategy in a way that affects capital allocation, M&A posture, and ESG-related investments across the ecosystem.

Bottom line

Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE: CLH) produced a strong Q3 2026, highlighted by top-line growth, improved margins, and meaningful cash flow. The governance transition adds a narrative to watch as the company navigates ongoing ESG opportunities, safety ambitions, and a backlog-supported revenue trajectory. If current demand remains intact and pricing holds, CLH could extend its margin progress into year-end and beyond, providing a model—if not a blueprint—for sector peers facing similar mix dynamics.