ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) Trading Up 6% - Still a Buy?

ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report)'s stock price shot up 6% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $140.70 and last traded at $141.82. 360,222 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 1,057,229 shares. The stock had previously closed at $133.76.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ICLR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $192.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen cut shares of ICON Public from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $254.00 to $157.00 in a research note on Monday, April 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $180.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $200.00 to $173.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of ICON Public from $165.00 to $155.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $213.08.

ICON Public Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock's fifty day moving average is $141.59 and its 200-day moving average is $179.78. The stock has a market cap of $10.89 billion, a PE ratio of 14.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.15.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.17 by $0.02. ICON Public had a net margin of 9.56% and a return on equity of 11.81%. The firm had revenue of $2 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.47 earnings per share. ICON Public's quarterly revenue was down 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that ICON Public Limited will post 13.38 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ICLR. Entropy Technologies LP raised its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 5,095 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC acquired a new stake in ICON Public during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS raised its holdings in ICON Public by 40.6% during the fourth quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 97,102 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $20,363,000 after purchasing an additional 28,050 shares in the last quarter. FDx Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of ICON Public by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. FDx Advisors Inc. now owns 3,527 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $740,000 after acquiring an additional 422 shares during the period. Finally, Transcend Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of ICON Public in the 4th quarter valued at $229,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.61% of the company's stock.

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.