Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Buys 650,379 Shares of Icon Plc $ICLR

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) by 21.0% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,752,008 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 650,379 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in Icon were worth $545,730,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ICLR. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Icon by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 84,370 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $12,272,000 after purchasing an additional 2,159 shares in the last quarter. Laffer Tengler Investments Inc. bought a new position in Icon during the 2nd quarter valued at about $305,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in Icon by 64.4% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,396 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $203,000 after buying an additional 547 shares in the last quarter. CSM Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Icon during the second quarter worth about $204,000. Finally, Bryn Mawr Trust Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Icon during the second quarter worth approximately $299,000. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on ICLR. Zacks Research lowered Icon from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Rothschild Redb raised Icon from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Truist Financial raised 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. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Icon from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $184.00 to $236.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $220.00 price objective on shares of Icon in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $205.00.

Icon Price Performance

Icon stock opened at $162.18 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $175.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $160.88. The stock has a market cap of $13.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.95, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.22. Icon Plc has a 12-month low of $125.10 and a 12-month high of $228.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

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

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.