Short Interest in ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) Drops By 6.7%

ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,390,000 shares, a drop of 6.7% from the March 15th total of 1,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 551,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.5 days. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ICON Public

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ICON Public in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. LM Advisors LLC acquired a new position in ICON Public during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in ICON Public during the 1st quarter worth about $31,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in ICON Public during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its position in ICON Public by 110.0% during the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 105 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.61% of the company’s stock.

ICON Public Stock Performance

ICON Public stock traded down $1.23 on Wednesday, hitting $292.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 178,023 shares, compared to its average volume of 540,825. The firm has a market cap of $24.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.21, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $315.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $280.08. ICON Public has a one year low of $181.92 and a one year high of $344.77.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The medical research company reported $3.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.08 billion. ICON Public had a net margin of 7.54% and a return on equity of 11.42%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that ICON Public will post 14.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of ICON Public from $295.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of ICON Public from $325.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of ICON Public from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of ICON Public from $357.00 to $367.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $346.00 price target on shares of ICON Public in a report on Thursday, April 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ICON Public has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $319.45.

About ICON Public

ICON Public Limited Company, a clinical research organization, provides outsourced development and commercialization services in Ireland, rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. The company specializes in the strategic development, management, and analysis of programs that support various stages of the clinical development process from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies.