Short Interest in ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) Decreases By 16.2%

ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,910,000 shares, a decrease of 16.2% from the March 31st total of 2,280,000 shares. Currently, 2.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,150,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ICON Public

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 67,988 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS raised its holdings in shares of ICON Public by 40.6% during the 4th quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 97,102 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $20,363,000 after buying an additional 28,050 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in ICON Public by 6.7% during the 4th 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. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc grew its position in ICON Public by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. Foyston Gordon & Payne Inc now owns 51,713 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $10,845,000 after acquiring an additional 11,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in ICON Public by 25.3% in the first quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 25,905 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $4,533,000 after acquiring an additional 5,229 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.61% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ICLR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $263.00 target price on shares of ICON Public in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on ICON Public from $192.00 to $160.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. 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. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of ICON Public in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $262.00 to $208.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ICON Public currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $215.33.

ICON Public Trading Down 5.5 %

ICON Public stock traded down $7.92 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $135.10. The stock had a trading volume of 1,942,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 984,463. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.91 billion, a PE ratio of 14.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.26. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $163.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $193.67. ICON Public has a twelve month low of $133.28 and a twelve month high of $347.72.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR - Get Free Report) last released 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 return on equity of 11.81% and a net margin of 9.56%. The business had revenue of $2 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.47 EPS. The company's revenue was down 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that ICON Public will post 13.38 EPS for the current 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.