Evercore ISI Boosts Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) Price Target to $240.00

Key Points

• Evercore ISI increased their price target for Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) from $170 to $240, indicating a potential upside of 27.76%.
• In contrast, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Icon's rating from "overweight" to "neutral" and cut its price target to $150.
• Icon's quarterly earnings report showed an EPS of $3.26, surpassing estimates, but revenue decreased by 4.8% year-over-year.
• The stock currently holds an average rating of "Moderate Buy", with a consensus target price of $209.25 from analysts.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR - Free Report) had its target price hoisted by Evercore ISI from $170.00 to $240.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the medical research company's stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup dropped their target price on Icon from $290.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Icon from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $265.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of Icon from $200.00 to $173.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Icon from $180.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Icon from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $150.00 to $224.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Icon presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $219.54.

Icon Stock Performance

ICLR stock traded down $5.72 on Friday, hitting $183.94. The company had a trading volume of 816,391 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,322,761. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Icon has a 12-month low of $125.10 and a 12-month high of $338.67. The stock has a market cap of $14.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.17. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $145.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $163.21.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The medical research company reported $3.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.18 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.98 billion. Icon had a return on equity of 10.95% and a net margin of 9.82%. The company's revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.75 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Icon will post 13.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ICLR. SVB Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Icon during the first quarter valued at about $28,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Icon during the second quarter worth about $48,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Icon during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Icon by 44.0% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 393 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Icon in the 1st quarter worth approximately $59,000. Institutional investors own 95.61% of the company's stock.

Icon Company Profile

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.