Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy", with 16 analysts providing coverage—9 rated it as a buy and 2 as a strong buy.
• The average price target for Icon shares is set at $219.54, with individual analyst targets ranging from a low of $160 to a high of $240.
• In its latest earnings report, Icon reported $3.26 earnings per share, exceeding expectations, but its revenue declined by 4.8% year-over-year.

Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $219.5385.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ICLR shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Icon from $155.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Icon from $170.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Robert W. Baird raised Icon from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $150.00 to $224.00 in a report on Thursday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Icon from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the company from $265.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded Icon from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th.

Icon Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ICLR traded down $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $178.53. The company's stock had a trading volume of 122,383 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,308,422. Icon has a fifty-two week low of $125.10 and a fifty-two week high of $328.35. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $14.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.42, a PEG ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.17. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $156.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $159.77.

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, 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 the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company 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 anticipate that Icon will post 13.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Icon

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ICLR. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Icon in the first quarter valued at $28,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in Icon in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Icon during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $49,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Icon by 44.0% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 393 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Icon in the first quarter valued at $59,000. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.