Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) Shares Up 8.5% on Analyst Upgrade

Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) rose 8.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Zacks Research upgraded the stock from a strong sell rating to a hold rating. The stock traded as high as $186.64 and last traded at $183.0990. 224,860 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 1,410,270 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.78.

ICLR has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Icon from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Icon from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $126.00 to $185.00 in a report on Thursday, June 25th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Icon from $160.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Icon from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Icon from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $168.73.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Harris Associates L P acquired a new stake in Icon during the second quarter worth about $238,256,000. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Icon by 555.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,496,479 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $272,688,000 after acquiring an additional 1,268,095 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Icon by 26.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,637,137 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $811,499,000 after acquiring an additional 975,268 shares during the period. Lyrical Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Icon in the 4th quarter worth approximately $176,382,000. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Icon during the 4th quarter worth approximately $160,073,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.61% of the company’s stock.

Icon Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $13.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.85 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $154.79 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.54.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The medical research company reported $2.56 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.55 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. Icon had a return on equity of 8.73% and a net margin of 5.35%.Icon’s revenue was up 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Icon Plc will post 9.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Icon

Icon plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) is a global provider of outsourced drug development and clinical research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The company partners with clients at all stages of the product life cycle, offering expertise in protocol design, trial execution and regulatory compliance across a broad range of therapeutic areas.

Icon’s service portfolio encompasses clinical trial management, data management and biostatistics, medical imaging, pharmacovigilance and safety monitoring, laboratory sciences and specialized analytical solutions.