Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 10,105 Shares of Icon Plc $ICLR

Welch & Forbes LLC cut its holdings in Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) by 54.0% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 8,605 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 10,105 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Icon were worth $952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harris Associates L P bought a new stake in shares of Icon during the 2nd quarter worth about $238,256,000. Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of Icon by 555.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,268,095 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Icon by 26.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,637,137 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $811,499,000 after purchasing an additional 975,268 shares during the last quarter. Lyrical Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Icon in the 4th quarter worth approximately $176,382,000. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Icon during the fourth quarter worth approximately $160,073,000. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ICLR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Leerink Partners set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Icon in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Icon from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Icon from $160.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Bank of America raised their price target on Icon from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Icon from $140.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $173.19.

Icon Price Performance

Shares of Icon stock opened at $167.72 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. Icon Plc has a fifty-two week low of $66.57 and a fifty-two week high of $211.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $141.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $137.18. The company has a market cap of $12.84 billion, a PE ratio of 29.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.23 and a beta of 1.22.

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