565,586 Shares in Icon Plc $ICLR Bought by Equity Investment Corp

Equity Investment Corp bought a new position in shares of Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 565,586 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $82,264,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ninety One UK Ltd raised its stake in shares of Icon by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 2,993,652 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $435,427,000 after purchasing an additional 75,465 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in Icon by 18.1% in the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,060,499 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $157,887,000 after acquiring an additional 162,853 shares during the period. First Pacific Advisors LP raised its position in Icon by 76.3% in the second quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP now owns 964,120 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $140,231,000 after acquiring an additional 417,173 shares during the period. Cantillon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Icon in the second quarter worth about $67,663,000. Finally, Ninety One North America Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Icon by 20.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One North America Inc. now owns 428,851 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $62,376,000 after purchasing an additional 72,945 shares during the period. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Icon Stock Performance

NASDAQ:ICLR opened at $162.96 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $177.93 and its 200 day moving average is $159.97. The firm has a market cap of $13.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.05, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. Icon Plc has a 52-week low of $125.10 and a 52-week high of $231.89.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.28 by $0.03. Icon had a return on equity of 10.58% and a net margin of 7.40%.The business had revenue of $2.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.35 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Icon Plc will post 13.38 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on ICLR shares. Baird R W raised shares of Icon from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Icon from $187.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. UBS Group set a $220.00 target price on Icon in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Icon from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $220.00 to $175.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 9th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Icon from $190.00 to $185.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $207.14.

About Icon

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.