ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR) Rating Increased to Outperform at Robert W. Baird

Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR - Free Report) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $224.00 price objective on the medical research company's stock, up from their prior price objective of $150.00.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. 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 report on Monday, April 7th. 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 report on Thursday, April 10th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of ICON from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of ICON from $165.00 to $155.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of ICON from $200.00 to $173.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $219.54.

ICON Price Performance

NASDAQ ICLR traded up $2.65 on Thursday, hitting $189.66. The stock had a trading volume of 1,002,448 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,326,539. ICON has a 52-week low of $125.10 and a 52-week high of $338.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The company has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $144.57 and a 200-day moving average of $163.41.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ICON

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ICLR. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in ICON by 18.1% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,060,499 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $157,887,000 after acquiring an additional 162,853 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in ICON by 2.6% during the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 2,993,652 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $435,427,000 after acquiring an additional 75,465 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. boosted its stake in ICON by 20.5% during the second quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. now owns 428,851 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $62,376,000 after acquiring an additional 72,945 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in ICON by 15,701.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 68,421 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $119,730,000 after acquiring an additional 67,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Running Oak Capital LLC boosted its stake in ICON by 29.2% during the second quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC now owns 107,218 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $15,595,000 after acquiring an additional 24,260 shares in the last quarter. 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.