Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) Stock Price

Key Points

• Barclays raised Icon's target price from $155.00 to $180.00, maintaining an "equal weight" rating, indicating a potential downside of 2.93% based on current stock price.
• Several analysts have varying target price adjustments, with quotes ranging from Citigroup's $215.00 to Evercore ISI's $240.00, showcasing mixed sentiment towards the stock.
• Icon traded down to $185.44 recently, with a market capitalization of approximately $15 billion and a P/E ratio of 19.09.
• Institutional investors and hedge funds hold 95.61% of Icon's stock, indicating a strong institutional backing of the company.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR - Free Report) had its target price upped by Barclays from $155.00 to $180.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the medical research company's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Icon from $180.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen lowered shares of Icon from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $254.00 to $157.00 in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Icon from $290.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Icon from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $265.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Icon from $262.00 to $208.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Icon presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $219.54.

Icon Price Performance

ICLR stock traded down $6.32 on Friday, reaching $183.34. The company had a trading volume of 840,731 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,322,927. Icon has a 1 year low of $125.10 and a 1 year high of $338.67. The company has a market cap of $14.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.84, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.17. The company's fifty day moving average is $145.74 and its 200 day moving average is $163.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.75 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Icon will post 13.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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