Baird R W Upgrades ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR) to Strong-Buy

Key Points

• Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) has been upgraded from a "hold" to a "strong-buy" rating by analysts at Baird R W, indicating increased confidence in the stock's potential.
• Several firms have adjusted their price targets for Icon, with UBS Group raising it to $240.00 while Goldman Sachs lowered it to $160.00, reflecting mixed sentiments among analysts.
• Recent quarterly earnings showed that Icon reported $3.26 earnings per share, surpassing expectations, although its revenue decreased by 4.8% year-over-year.

Baird R W upgraded shares of ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR - Free Report) from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of ICON from $187.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of ICON from $180.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised shares of ICON from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $150.00 to $224.00 in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut ICON from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $265.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on ICON from $173.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $219.54.

ICON Price Performance

Shares of ICON stock traded up $2.65 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $189.66. 1,002,448 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,571,695. ICON has a 1 year low of $125.10 and a 1 year high of $338.67. The company has a market capitalization of $15.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.17. The business has a fifty day moving average of $145.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $163.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

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

Institutional Trading of ICON

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mutual Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of ICON by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 2,698 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $392,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in ICON by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 22,511 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $3,274,000 after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of ICON by 18.1% in the 2nd 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. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of ICON in the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of ICON by 42.2% in the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 14,691 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $2,137,000 after buying an additional 4,362 shares during the period. 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.