ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $304.27.

Several research firms recently commented on ICLR. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of ICON Public from $370.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Baird R W lowered ICON Public from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $360.00 to $350.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on ICON Public from $375.00 to $280.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic started coverage on shares of ICON Public in a report on Monday, October 14th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $311.00 target price for the company.

ICON Public Stock Performance

Shares of ICLR stock opened at $212.27 on Wednesday. ICON Public has a 52-week low of $208.65 and a 52-week high of $347.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $17.51 billion, a PE ratio of 23.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.25. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $273.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $303.50.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The medical research company reported $3.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.72 by ($0.37). The company had revenue of $2.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. ICON Public had a net margin of 9.00% and a return on equity of 11.91%. The company’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.10 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that ICON Public will post 13.43 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of ICON Public

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in ICON Public in the second quarter worth approximately $54,000. ORG Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of ICON Public in the 2nd quarter valued at about $59,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of ICON Public by 50.0% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 261 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in ICON Public by 17.4% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 283 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $95,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in shares of ICON Public by 119.6% during the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 415 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $130,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.