ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the fifteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $213.08.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on ICLR shares. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $165.00 to $155.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $200.00 to $173.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $290.00 to $215.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of ICON Public from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $265.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $180.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 2nd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ICON Public

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Entropy Technologies LP increased its position in shares of ICON Public by 472.2% during the fourth quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 6,174 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,295,000 after acquiring an additional 5,095 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of ICON Public by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 177,761 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $37,279,000 after acquiring an additional 11,177 shares in the last quarter. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of ICON Public by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC now owns 64,038 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $13,342,000 after acquiring an additional 1,466 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. increased its position in shares of ICON Public by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 4,736 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $993,000 after acquiring an additional 716 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of ICON Public 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. Institutional investors own 95.61% of the company's stock.

ICON Public Price Performance

Shares of ICLR stock traded up $5.85 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $139.61. 2,069,096 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,066,239. ICON Public has a fifty-two week low of $125.10 and a fifty-two week high of $347.72. The stock's fifty day moving average is $141.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $179.78. The company has a market cap of $11.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The medical research company reported $3.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.17 by $0.02. ICON Public had a net margin of 9.56% and a return on equity of 11.81%. The business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.47 earnings per share. ICON Public's revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that ICON Public will post 13.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About ICON Public

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.