ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,390,000 shares, a drop of 6.7% from the March 15th total of 1,490,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 551,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

ICON Public Stock Down 2.2 %

ICON Public stock opened at $299.12 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $24.68 billion, a PE ratio of 40.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a current ratio of 1.21. ICON Public has a one year low of $181.92 and a one year high of $344.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $315.36 and a 200 day moving average of $279.75.

ICON Public (NASDAQ:ICLR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The medical research company reported $3.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.27 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.08 billion. ICON Public had a return on equity of 11.42% and a net margin of 7.54%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that ICON Public will post 14.4 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of ICON Public

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of ICON Public in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. LM Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ICON Public in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in shares of ICON Public in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. lifted its position in shares of ICON Public by 110.0% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 105 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of ICON Public in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors own 95.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on ICLR. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of ICON Public from $295.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $346.00 target price on shares of ICON Public in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of ICON Public from $357.00 to $367.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $325.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $319.45.

About ICON Public

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.