Public Markets Update
Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in late Q1 of 2020, the life sciences tools & diagnostics sector generally outperformed the broader markets through the end of 2021. Since the start of 2022, however, the large cap group of stocks within the sector has generally followed the downward trend in the broader markets, experiencing a YTD decline of ~27%. Moreover, the mid cap and small cap sub-groups within the sector have witnessed a more substantial valuation reset that well exceeds their large cap brethren.
At present and as a proxy for the sector, the large cap group of stocks within the sector is currently trading at an average EV / LTM EBITDA of 14.2x versus a three-year average of 15.8x.