ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,390,000 shares, a decline of 6.7% from the March 15th total of 1,490,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 551,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ICLR shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on ICON Public from $345.00 to $362.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on ICON Public from $295.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. Mizuho reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $346.00 price target on shares of ICON Public in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Truist Financial upped their price target on ICON Public from $357.00 to $367.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on ICON Public from $325.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ICON Public currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $319.45.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ICON Public

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of ICON Public during the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. LM Advisors LLC acquired a new position in ICON Public in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in ICON Public in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its stake in ICON Public by 110.0% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 105 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in ICON Public in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.61% of the company's stock.

ICON Public Price Performance

Shares of ICLR stock traded down $5.09 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $294.03. 667,738 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 545,909. The stock's 50-day moving average is $315.94 and its 200-day moving average is $280.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.21. The stock has a market cap of $24.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.15. ICON Public has a 52 week low of $181.92 and a 52 week high of $344.77.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The medical research company reported $3.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.27 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.08 billion. ICON Public had a return on equity of 11.42% and a net margin of 7.54%. As a group, research analysts forecast that ICON Public will post 14.4 EPS for the current year.

ICON Public 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.