ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) Lowered to Hold at Baird R W

Baird R W downgraded shares of ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on ICON Public from $383.00 to $363.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Leerink Partners initiated coverage on ICON Public in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $379.00 price target for the company. Leerink Partnrs raised ICON Public to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird cut shares of ICON Public from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $340.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of ICON Public from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $310.45.

ICON Public Price Performance

Shares of ICLR opened at $220.47 on Thursday. ICON Public has a 12 month low of $220.01 and a 12 month high of $347.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.31. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $297.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $310.18. The company has a market cap of $18.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.70, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 1.22.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The medical research company reported $3.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.72 by ($0.37). The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.13 billion. ICON Public had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 8.57%. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.10 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that ICON Public will post 14.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ICON Public

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ICLR. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of ICON Public by 19.5% in the 2nd quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP now owns 119,728 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $37,531,000 after purchasing an additional 19,546 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its position in ICON Public by 15.9% in the second quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 95,753 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $30,016,000 after buying an additional 13,163 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of ICON Public by 12.3% in the third quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 4,020 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,155,000 after buying an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Sara Bay Financial acquired a new stake in shares of ICON Public during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,143,000. Finally, Motco boosted its stake in shares of ICON Public by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Motco now owns 3,882 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,304,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.61% of the company’s stock.

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.