Stephens Inc. AR Increases Stake in Icon Plc $ICLR

Stephens Inc. AR raised its stake in Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) by 102.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,547 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,325 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Icon were worth $1,167,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Harris Associates L P bought a new position in shares of Icon in the second quarter worth approximately $238,256,000. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Icon by 555.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,496,479 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $272,688,000 after buying an additional 1,268,095 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Icon by 26.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,637,137 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $811,499,000 after buying an additional 975,268 shares during the period. Lyrical Asset Management LP bought a new stake in Icon in the 4th quarter worth $176,382,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Icon in the 4th quarter worth $160,073,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on ICLR. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Icon from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Icon from $130.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Icon from $164.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. DA Davidson set a $164.00 price objective on Icon in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Icon from $160.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $173.19.

Icon Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ ICLR traded down $1.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $167.72. 308,538 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 912,130. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. Icon Plc has a 12-month low of $66.57 and a 12-month high of $211.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $141.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $137.47. The firm has a market cap of $12.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.84, a P/E/G ratio of 8.28 and a beta of 1.22.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 23rd. The medical research company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.07. Icon had a return on equity of 8.73% and a net margin of 5.35%.The business had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.43 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Icon Plc will post 9.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Icon Company Profile

Icon plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) is a global provider of outsourced drug development and clinical research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The company partners with clients at all stages of the product life cycle, offering expertise in protocol design, trial execution and regulatory compliance across a broad range of therapeutic areas.

Icon’s service portfolio encompasses clinical trial management, data management and biostatistics, medical imaging, pharmacovigilance and safety monitoring, laboratory sciences and specialized analytical solutions.