CLARIVATE PLC (CLVT): what the price assumes

In the published model solve dated 2026-Q2, anchored at $2.07, CLARIVATE PLC (CLVT) is priced for +21.9% growth. boothcheck publishes no house fair value, target price, or buy/sell rating; individual model outputs and user-controlled scenarios are analytical inputs, not Boothcheck targets. Narrative composed 2026-07-25.

Generated: 2026-09-07 · Exported: 2026-09-09 · Source: https://boothcheck.com/report/CLVT

Headline

What The Price Assumes (Inversion)

The assumption today's price embeds, recovered by inverting the valuation.

The operating-margin figure is value-band context at year 12: derived from the framework's value band, a separate calculation — not part of the priced-in solve.

Solve inputs: computed at a 7% cost of capital with 4% terminal growth over a 5-year stage (computed at the 7% minimum rate; the CAPM rate 6.9% sits below it).

How unusual the bet is: n/a

Valuation X-Ray

The price is supported by asset-based value. A value/asset-supported name, not a pure growth bet.

How the valuation models price the stock relative to the market price. Price/FV above 1.0 means the market pays more than that lens defends (expensive); at or below 1.0 the lens can defend the price.

Families that justify the price: Asset

The models below discount at their own flat-beta convention rates (cost of equity 9.3%, WACC 5.2%); the inversion above states its own rate.

Per-Model Detail (n=3)

Economic-Unit Decomposition (Sum Of The Parts)

One or more material disclosed units has unresolved economics. Unknown/general is not evidence of homogeneity: segment SOTP is primary but incomplete, consolidated cash flow may remain only a secondary cross-check when every unit shares an enterprise basis, and one sector multiple or target margin is withheld.

No total common-equity value is stated. One or more material units lack a supported unit value. The displayed values are an indicative subtotal; consolidated debt and cash cannot be applied to a fraction of the company.

Solvency

Interest expense is not separately reported in the latest filings, so interest coverage cannot be computed.

Bullet Takeaways

• A definitive agreement signed on July 6, 2026 sells the Life Sciences and Healthcare segment to Altaris for 600 million dollars, of which 500 million arrives as cash at closing, with proceeds earmarked for debt reduction and the segment moving to discontinued operations from the third quarter.
• Borrowings are the whole story on the equity: the market values the shares near 1.3 billion dollars while net borrowings run to roughly 4.18 billion, so a modest move in what the business is worth as a whole becomes a large move in what is left for shareholders.
• Watch organic growth rather than reported profit: management reaffirmed a full-year 2026 revenue outlook of 1.94 to 2.04 billion dollars on continuing operations, with organic annualized contract value guided to 2.0% to 3.0%.

Bull Case

Information-services roll-ups are among the harder things in public markets to value honestly, because the accounting for how they were built swamps the accounting for how they perform. Clarivate was assembled by acquisition, and the price paid for each database and workflow tool now runs back through the income statement as amortization. Depreciation and amortization came to 757.2 million dollars in 2025, against reported operating profit of about 60 million dollars on roughly 2.45 billion dollars of revenue. Read the operating line alone and this looks like a business that barely functions. Read the cash flow statement and operations produced 628.5 million dollars during the same year, with capital expenditures of 263.2 million dollars. Those two facts describe the same company, and only one of them is about the business.

What generates the cash is a subscription base with unusual stickiness. About 65% of revenue is subscription, another 18% re-occurring, leaving roughly 17% transactional. The 10-K explains why the re-occurring piece behaves the way it does: Because of the re-occurring nature of the patent and trademark lifecycle, our customers engage us on a regular basis to ensure their intellectual property rights remain protected. These contracts typically include evergreen clauses or are multi-year agreements. The customer list runs past 45,000 across academic institutions, libraries, corporations, law firms, government bodies and pharmaceutical companies, which management describes as producing strong and consistent annual customer renewal. In a business where the underlying content took decades to accumulate, retention is the moat, and the company treats the annual renewal rate as a headline operating indicator rather than a footnote.

The portfolio just got simpler, and the balance sheet is the intended beneficiary. The July agreement sends Life Sciences and Healthcare to Altaris for 600 million dollars, with 500 million in cash at closing, 25 million deferred to completion of a transition services agreement and a 75 million dollar seller note, and management has said the cash goes to reducing borrowings. That leaves two segments that already share content assets and technology platforms, Academia and Government alongside Intellectual Property. A leveraged business that sells a division at a decent multiple and applies the proceeds to debt does something specific for the equity: it moves value across the capital structure toward the shareholder without the operating business having to improve at all.

Improvement would compound it. The comparison set shows what these assets earn when the acquisition accounting has washed through. FDS runs a business of almost identical size, 2.438 billion dollars of trailing revenue, at a 29.6% operating margin, and VRSK earns 44.0% on 3.102 billion dollars. Neither is a perfect analogue, but both describe the steady state of a subscription data business that is not paying down purchase amortization. Clarivate does not need to reach those margins for the equity to work. It needs the recurring base to stop shrinking while the borrowings come down, and the outlook management reaffirmed alongside the divestiture, organic annualized contract value growth of 2.0% to 3.0% for full-year 2026, is a claim that the first half of that is already happening.

Bear Case

The price rests on one assumption doing all the work: that the recurring revenue base holds while the borrowings shrink. Take away either half and the equity is in trouble, because there is very little of it. Net borrowings run to about 4.18 billion dollars against a market value near 1.3 billion, which means shareholders own the thin slice left after lenders are satisfied. The most fragile piece is not the debt schedule. It is the revenue line underneath it, and the 10-K is candid about the direction of travel, attributing revenue declines to product group wind-downs and lower transactional and subscription revenues.

The competitive backdrop is what makes that fragility acute. This is a business that sells access to curated content and the workflow tools wrapped around it, at precisely the moment when general-purpose models are getting better at summarizing and searching text. Peers name the risk plainly in their own filings; FDS warns that if competitors incorporate AI technologies, such as emerging generative and agentic AI, into their products and processes more quickly or more effectively, its competitive position may suffer. The same pressure applies here with less margin to absorb it. FDS earns 29.6% at the operating line and VRSK 44.0%, while WLY, the closest peer by shape and the one whose revenue was roughly flat over its trailing year at 1.677 billion dollars, earns 16.5%. Clarivate reports 2.5%.

The accounting record shows what happens when the growth assumption is revised. Goodwill and intangible asset impairments were 979.9 million dollars in 2023 and 540.7 million dollars in 2024, before falling to 15.0 million dollars in 2025. The risk factors are explicit that this is not necessarily finished, warning that further sustained declines in share price and market capitalization may trigger the need for updated impairment assessments. The divestiture itself carries one: management expects to record a non-cash goodwill impairment of roughly 225 to 250 million dollars on the segment being sold, based on the agreed price. Selling an asset below its carrying value is a market test of the carrying value, and the market marked it down.

Then there is what the price requires. The enterprise is valued at roughly 92 times what the business earned at the operating line over the trailing year, and unwinding that says growth has to run at the ceiling the business can fund from its own earnings for something like nine years. Only about 18% of comparable fast-growers have sustained that pace across a similar span. Set that against guidance for recurring organic revenue growth of 0.75% to 2.25% in 2026 and the tension is obvious: the price is underwriting a compounding profile that the company's own outlook does not describe. Borrowings net of liquid assets sit at roughly 69 times operating profit, and interest expense is not separately reported in the latest filings, so the coverage question has to be answered by watching the cash-flow statement rather than a ratio. What is clear is that with borrowings of that size, the operating business has almost no room to disappoint.

Valuation

Two numbers frame everything here. Shareholders are collectively paying about 1.3 billion dollars, and the enterprise being bought carries roughly 5.5 billion dollars of total value once borrowings are added. The equity is therefore a minority claim on the business, sitting behind lenders, which is why the shares move far more than the underlying operations do. Against trailing operating profit of about 60 million dollars, that enterprise value works out near 92 times, and unwinding that multiple implies operating growth held at the ceiling the business can self-fund for about nine years. Among comparable fast-growers, only about 18% sustained that pace across a similar stretch. The trailing operating margin is 2.5%.

That 2.5% is where the analysis has to slow down, because it is not a description of how the business runs. Amortization of acquired databases and customer relationships consumed 757.2 million dollars in 2025, and the same year's operations produced 628.5 million dollars of cash before capital expenditures of 263.2 million dollars. The methods that price a company off its earnings therefore have almost nothing to work with here, and the frames that do carry a number are the balance-sheet ones. Book value stands at 7.47 dollars a share against a price of 2.04. The price sits below the asset lens rather than above it, which puts this in value territory rather than growth territory, and the honest caveat is that book value here is largely acquired goodwill and intangibles, the same assets written down by 979.9 million dollars in 2023 and 540.7 million dollars in 2024.

So the two readings pull against each other, and the reader should see the conflict rather than a resolution of it. Measured against reported operating profit, the price looks demanding to the point of implausibility. Measured against cash generation and against book, it looks like a discount. Both are computed from the same filings. The difference is entirely purchase amortization, and whether that amortization is a real economic cost depends on whether the acquired content and customer relationships need replacing at anything like the rate they are being written off. For a citation index and a patent database, the honest answer is probably not, but it is not nothing either, since the 10-K also books restructuring and other impairments of 50.7 million dollars in 2025 and share-based compensation of 63.0 million dollars.

Solvency is the binding constraint on all of it. Borrowings net of liquid assets are roughly 69 times operating profit, liquid assets stand near 242 million dollars, and the revolving facility prices at a floating base rate plus 3.25%, stepping down as first-lien leverage improves. The share count has drifted down about 1.8% a year over the past four years, so dilution is not currently the mechanism eroding the claim. The pending divestiture, which brings in 500 million dollars of cash at closing against a segment already marked down, is the first concrete reduction of the load. What the price is really tracking is the pace of that deleveraging, not the quarterly earnings print.

Catalysts

On July 6, 2026 Clarivate entered a definitive agreement to sell its Life Sciences and Healthcare segment to Altaris LLC for 600 million dollars, structured as 500 million dollars of cash at closing, 25 million dollars deferred to the completion of a transition services agreement and a 75 million dollar seller note. The company said the cash proceeds go to reducing borrowings, that the transaction is expected to close by the end of the year subject to regulatory approvals and customary conditions, and that the segment will be reported as discontinued operations beginning in the third quarter. Management also flagged an expected non-cash goodwill impairment of approximately 225 to 250 million dollars on the segment, based on the agreed price.

Guidance was reaffirmed alongside the announcement rather than reset. For full-year 2026 the company pointed to revenues of 1.94 to 2.04 billion dollars on continuing operations, or 2.30 to 2.42 billion dollars including the business being sold, with organic annualized contract value growth of 2.0% to 3.0% and recurring organic revenue growth of 0.75% to 2.25%. Management said it expects to update the outlook when the transaction closes. The gap between those two revenue figures is a useful sizing of what is leaving.

Leadership of the segment that has to carry the remaining company changed a month earlier. Simon Webster became President of the Intellectual Property segment effective June 10, 2026, succeeding Maroun S. Mourad, who departs at the end of September. Webster previously ran CPA Global before its combination with Clarivate, and the company framed the appointment around returning the IP segment to sustainable recurring growth. Between now and the close of the divestiture, the two things that carry information are the pace of debt reduction against the announced proceeds, and whether organic contract value lands inside the reaffirmed range.

Peer Cohorts (Per Segment, With Filing Citations)

Academia & Government (reported)

• RELX (RELX PLC)
• FY2025 20-F: …provided in the deposit agreement) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Converting foreign currency to US dollars ​ ​ ​ Taxes and other governmental charges the depositary or the custodian have to pay on any ADS or share underlying an ADS, for example, stock transfer taxes, stamp duty or withholding taxes ​ As necessary ​ ​ ​ Any charges…
• FY2025 20-F: University of Science and Technology, Islamic Azad University, Shahid Beheshti University, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and University of Zanjan; and 15 Table of Contents ● our Exhibitions business provided exhibitions-related services to a number of exhibitors. Iranian nationals attended conferences…
• WLY (JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …titles, and discontinue the sale of others in the normal course of our business. We also create adaptations of original content for specific markets based on customer demand. Our general practice is to revise our textbooks every 3 to 5 years, as warranted, and to revise other titles as appropriate. Subscription-based…
• FY2025 10-K: …from contracts with customers includes platform and workflow solutions for societies and publishers, which includes production and content hosting, submissions and peer review support, editorial, and copy editing services. Included within platforms is our Atypon® publishing platform for societies and publishers which…
• PSO (PEARSON PLC)
• FY2025 20-F: …in our Higher Education courseware were four times as likely to remain or become more active, efficient studiers compared to those who did not use the AI study tools. We have also seen evidence of positive student outcomes through the Pearson AI study tool embedded in Biology and World History learning materials for…
• FY2025 20-F: …universities and the business sector, helping people and organisations to achieve economic and educational goals. Our assessments are a reliable currency of competence and achievement, and we often operate in highly regulated environments. We support governments on topics such as the impact of technological…
• FDS (FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …competitive position and business results may be negatively impacted. If our competitors or other third parties incorporate AI technologies, such as emerging generative and agentic AI, into their products and processes more quickly or more successfully than us, this could impair our ability to compete effectively.…
• FY2025 10-K: …or governmental investigations We are party to lawsuits in the normal course of our business, including a purported class action relating to our acquisition, and operation of, the CGS business ( Dinosaur Financial Group LLC et al. v. S&P Global, Inc. et al ). Litigation and governmental investigations can be…
• SPGI (S&P Global Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …Nonetheless, in the interest of managing customer relationships, the Company from time to time engages in dialogue with such customers in an effort to resolve such complaints, and if such complaints cannot be resolved through dialogue, may face litigation regarding such complaints. The Company does not expect to…
• FY2025 10-K: …loss of public confidence, or a material reduction to the marketability or competitiveness of our products and services. In addition, our failure to continue development and adoption of ethical and transparent policies and procedures related to AI could negatively impact our reputation and customer confidence. Any of…
• VRSK (Verisk Analytics, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …against larger competitors. We may also invest further to upgrade our systems in order to compete. If we fail to successfully compete, our business, financial position and results of operations may be adversely affected. We could lose our access to data from external sources, which could prevent us from providing our…
• FY2025 10-K: …Subscription is a single performance obligation that represents a series of distinct services (daily access to our online portal and related content) that are substantially the same and that have the same pattern of transfer to our customer. We recognize revenue for Hosted Subscriptions ratably over the performance…

Intellectual Property (reported)

• RELX (RELX PLC)
• FY2025 20-F: Our products and services include and utilise intellectual property and we rely on our commercial agreements as well as trademark, copyright, patent, trade secret and other intellectual property laws to establish and protect our proprietary rights in this intellectual property. Such intellectual property laws are…
• FY2025 20-F: ) ​ ​ ​ (square feet) Owned properties ​ ​ Alpharetta, Georgia Office and data centre 406,000 Leased properties ​ ​ Miamisburg, Ohio Office and data centre 137,249 Raleigh, North Carolina Office 120,000 Amsterdam, Netherlands Office 114,537 All of the above properties are substantially occupied by RELX. No property…
• WLY (JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …sale, there is a written agreement between us and our customer that covers multiple years. However, we typically account for these agreements as one-year contracts because our enforceable rights under the agreements are subject to an annual confirmation and negotiation process with the customer. 70 I ndex In Journal…
• FY2025 10-K: …updates during the subscription period, which is generally an annual period, revenue for the minimum guarantee is recognized on a straight-line basis over the term of the agreement. For our sales- or usage-based royalty agreements, we recognize revenue in the period of usage based on the amounts earned. We record…
• FDS (FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …existing intellectual property laws may afford only limited protection. Research and Product Development Costs A key aspect of our growth strategy is to offer new solutions and enhance our existing products by making them faster and more robust with deeper data and insights. We continue to invest in AI solutions that…
• FY2025 10-K: …that we have infringed upon their intellectual property rights. Responding to these claims may require us to enter into royalty and licensing agreements on unfavorable terms, incur litigation costs, enter into settlements, stop selling or redesign affected products, or pay damages and satisfy indemnification…
• SPGI (S&P Global Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …compete with other AI products or services, to improve efficiency of existing products or services through the effective use of AI to remain competitive, or to incorporate AI in our internal operations, or could materially increase our burden and cost of research, development and regulatory compliance. • We do not…
• FY2025 10-K: …developing product or service offerings that are substantially equivalent or superior to our offerings. If any of our trade secrets were to be lawfully obtained or independently developed by a competitor or other third party, we would have no right to prevent them from using that technology or information to compete…
• VRSK (Verisk Analytics, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …for future growth. We could face claims for intellectual property infringement, which if successful could restrict us from using and providing our technologies and solutions to our customers. There has been substantial litigation and other proceedings, particularly in the U.S., regarding patent and other intellectual…
• FY2025 10-K: …lines, many of which are registered. We believe many of our trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos to be of material importance to our business, as they assist our customers in identifying our solutions and services and the quality that stands behind them. We consider our intellectual property to be…

Life Sciences & Healthcare (reported)

• IQV (IQVIA HOLDINGS INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: …of the size of the various markets described above, we review third-party sources, which include estimates and forecasts of spending in various segments, in combination with internal IQVIA research and analysis informed by our experience serving these segments, as well as projected growth rates for each of these…
• FY2025 10-K: …evidence studies demonstrate practical and clinical effectiveness, which can require the aggregation and integration of large clinical data sets across multiple care settings, types of therapies and patient cohorts. Longitudinal studies require analysis of non-identified patient diagnoses, treatments, procedures and…
• VEEV (Veeva Systems Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …larger customers occurs, the combined company may represent a larger percentage of business for us and, as a result, we are likely to rely more significantly on revenue from the combined company to continue to achieve growth. In addition, if large life sciences companies merge, it would have the potential to reduce…
• FY2025 10-K: …content management, field optimization, and commercial insights and analytics. R&D Business Consulting enables continuous and sustainable innovation across the drug development value chain, including process efficiency, time-to-market acceleration, and optimized operating model and governance. Our Customers As of…
• DOCS (Doximity, Inc.)
• FY2025 10-K: …to articles about scientific congresses or professional meetings. We take a rigorous approach to launching new modules, including internal and customer pilots. Our goal is to make sponsored content useful, relevant, and informative for our members. Our newer integrated programs allow our clients to leverage the power…
• FY2025 10-K: …could require a costly response from us. Our solutions address heavily regulated functions within the life sciences industry, and failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations could lessen the demand for our solutions or subject us to significant claims and losses. Our customers use our solutions for…
• RELX (RELX PLC)
• FY2025 20-F: …by providing tools that combine legal, regulatory and business information with powerful analytics. ● Exhibitions combines industry expertise, digital tools, and data to help customers connect in-person and online, discover new markets, source products, generate leads, and transact. Business area reporting changes ​…
• FY2025 20-F: We continue to expand our extensive, differentiated data assets, build out our global fraud infrastructure, and more deeply integrate advanced authentication and behavioural intelligence, to address the increasing complexity of risk decisioning for customers worldwide. In Insurance, strong growth continues to be…
• FDS (FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INC.)
• FY2025 10-K: Growth Officer from 2022 to 2024 and Chief Administrative Officer of the Corporate and Investment Bank. Earlier in his career, he was a Managing Director and Head of Corporate Strategy for JPMorgan and a Partner and Co-Head of Global Corporate and Investment Banking for McKinsey & Company. Mr. Viswanathan holds a…
• FY2025 10-K: …and digital reporting workflows. We are also working to introduce next-generation automation in research, financial modeling, and pitch creation. • Innovating with AI: Our AI roadmap, driven by our FactSet AI Blueprint, is resonating with our clients, and FactSet's AI solutions are generating usage, demand and…

Methodology Note

• Priced-in inversion: the valuation is inverted on the current price to recover the operating-income growth, duration, and steady-state margin the price embeds (ROE for financials, FFO growth for REITs).
• Valuation x-ray: the valuation models, grouped into four families (asset, earnings, relative, growth). Each model is expressed as a price/FV ratio (distance from price), not a point fair-value estimate. The spread across families is the disagreement.
• Economic-unit decomposition (SOTP): each disclosed business unit is assigned its native valuation basis before any multiple is applied. Operating units are valued on enterprise value; funded financial units are valued on their own common equity, because their borrowings fund earning assets rather than levering the parent. A company total is stated only once every material unit carries a supported value and the parent capital bridge reconciles.
• Solvency: net cash/debt, net-debt-to-NOPAT, interest coverage, and share-count CAGR from EDGAR financials (net debt / FFO and fixed-charge coverage for REITs; regulatory-capital framing for financials).
• Peer cohorts: per-segment comparables with deep-linkable SEC filing citations.

Fundamentals sourced from SEC EDGAR filings. Current price from Databento. The priced-in inversion and valuation x-ray are computed by the boothcheck engine; narrative composed by AI from the structured data.