Hsbc Holdings PLC Buys New Shares in Icon Plc $ICLR

Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in Icon Plc (NASDAQ:ICLR) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 11,028 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,012,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Icon during the second quarter worth about $254,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its stake in Icon by 19.3% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 28,145 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,094,000 after purchasing an additional 4,546 shares during the period. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC grew its holdings in Icon by 97.6% during the 2nd quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 71,360 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $10,379,000 after buying an additional 35,253 shares in the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp purchased a new stake in Icon during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $212,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in shares of Icon by 58.7% during 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 during the last quarter. 95.61% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ICLR. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Icon from $168.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Icon from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $159.00 to $207.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $165.00 price objective on shares of Icon in a research report on Friday, May 29th. UBS Group set a $160.00 target price on Icon in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler downgraded Icon to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $173.19.

Icon Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ICLR traded down $1.05 on Friday, reaching $167.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 308,538 shares, compared to its average volume of 912,130. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $141.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $137.47. Icon Plc has a 52-week low of $66.57 and a 52-week high of $211.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. The company has a market cap of $12.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.84, a PEG ratio of 8.23 and a beta of 1.22.

Icon (NASDAQ:ICLR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 23rd. The medical research company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.07. Icon had a return on equity of 8.73% and a net margin of 5.35%.The firm had revenue of $2.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.98 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.43 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Icon Plc will post 9.43 EPS 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.