IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) has been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $225.6875.

Several research analysts recently commented on IQV shares. Mizuho set a $215.00 target price on IQVIA in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Barclays raised IQVIA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, March 6th. BMO Capital Markets set a $250.00 target price on IQVIA in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings cut IQVIA from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on IQVIA from $255.00 to $225.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 6th.

IQVIA Stock Down 1.0%

IQV opened at $171.47 on Friday. IQVIA has a 1-year low of $134.65 and a 1-year high of $247.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.18. The business has a 50 day moving average of $169.85 and a 200-day moving average of $198.11.

IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The medical research company reported $2.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.83 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $4.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. IQVIA had a return on equity of 30.50% and a net margin of 8.33%.IQVIA’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.70 earnings per share. IQVIA has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.650-12.950 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that IQVIA will post 11.57 earnings per share for the current year.

IQVIA declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the medical research company to repurchase up to 6.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IQV. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in IQVIA by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,650,532 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,429,426,000 after buying an additional 159,899 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in IQVIA by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,374,971 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $982,272,000 after buying an additional 24,453 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in IQVIA by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,087,380 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $923,276,000 after buying an additional 530,672 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in IQVIA by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,799,600 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $856,468,000 after buying an additional 528,753 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in IQVIA by 1.2% during the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,597,572 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $683,323,000 after buying an additional 41,643 shares during the last quarter. 89.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About IQVIA

IQVIA (NYSE: IQV) is a global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions and contract research services to the life sciences industry. The company combines clinical research capabilities with large-scale health data and analytics to support drug development, regulatory reporting, commercial strategy and real?world evidence generation. IQVIA traces its current form to the combination of Quintiles and IMS Health announced in 2016 and subsequently rebranded as IQVIA, bringing together long-established clinical research operations and extensive healthcare information assets.

IQVIA’s principal activities include outsourced clinical development services (acting as a contract research organization for phases I–IV), real?world evidence and observational research, regulatory and safety services, and a suite of technology platforms that enable data integration, analytics and operational management.