Norges Bank Takes Position in IQVIA Holdings Inc. $IQV

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 2,206,846 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $497,445,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of IQVIA by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,650,532 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,429,426,000 after acquiring an additional 159,899 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of IQVIA by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,374,971 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $982,272,000 after buying an additional 24,453 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of IQVIA by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 3,597,572 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $683,323,000 after buying an additional 41,643 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners bought a new stake in shares of IQVIA in the 3rd quarter valued at $676,698,000. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of IQVIA by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 3,433,957 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $652,246,000 after buying an additional 161,085 shares in the last quarter. 89.62% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of IQVIA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $210.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 6th. Citigroup lowered their target price on IQVIA from $230.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on IQVIA from $255.00 to $225.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on IQVIA from $290.00 to $245.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Mizuho set a $215.00 target price on IQVIA in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $225.69.

IQVIA Price Performance

Shares of IQV opened at $182.03 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.21. IQVIA Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $136.41 and a twelve month high of $247.04. The company has a 50 day moving average of $170.34 and a 200-day moving average of $196.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20.

IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The medical research company reported $2.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.83 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $4.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.10 billion. IQVIA had a net margin of 8.33% and a return on equity of 30.50%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.70 EPS. IQVIA has set its FY 2026 guidance at 12.650-12.950 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that IQVIA Holdings Inc. will post 11.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IQVIA declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 7th that allows the company to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the medical research company to purchase up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

IQVIA Profile

IQVIA (NYSE: IQV) is a global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions and contract research services to the life sciences industry. The company combines clinical research capabilities with large-scale health data and analytics to support drug development, regulatory reporting, commercial strategy and real‑world evidence generation. IQVIA traces its current form to the combination of Quintiles and IMS Health announced in 2016 and subsequently rebranded as IQVIA, bringing together long-established clinical research operations and extensive healthcare information assets.

IQVIA’s principal activities include outsourced clinical development services (acting as a contract research organization for phases I–IV), real‑world evidence and observational research, regulatory and safety services, and a suite of technology platforms that enable data integration, analytics and operational management.