Avidity Partners Management LP Purchases New Position in Icon Plc $ICLR

Avidity Partners Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 33,100 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,031,000. Icon comprises approximately 1.7% of Avidity Partners Management LP’s holdings, making the stock its 13th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ICLR. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new position in Icon during the second quarter valued at approximately $254,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Icon by 19.3% during the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 28,145 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,094,000 after acquiring an additional 4,546 shares in the last quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC raised its position in Icon by 97.6% during the second quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 71,360 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $10,379,000 after acquiring an additional 35,253 shares in the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp purchased a new position in Icon during the second quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in shares of Icon by 58.7% in the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 781 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on ICLR shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $100.00 price objective on Icon and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Icon from $120.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Icon from $123.00 to $126.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings cut Icon from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Leerink Partners set a $145.00 price objective on Icon in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Icon has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $156.44.

Icon Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ICLR opened at $146.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.10. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $121.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $140.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.19 billion, a PE ratio of 23.73, a P/E/G ratio of 11.55 and a beta of 1.26. Icon Plc has a 1 year low of $66.57 and a 1 year high of $211.00.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, June 17th. The medical research company reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.47 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.99 billion. Icon had a return on equity of 9.50% and a net margin of 5.98%.The business’s revenue was up 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.43 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Icon Plc will post 9.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Icon

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.