ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) Short Interest Down 13.7% in January

ICON Public Limited (NASDAQ:ICLR) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,390,000 shares, a decrease of 13.7% from the January 15th total of 1,610,000 shares. Currently, 1.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,130,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.2 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ICLR. Citigroup lowered their price objective on ICON Public from $300.00 to $290.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of ICON Public in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of ICON Public from $280.00 to $265.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Baird R W cut shares of ICON Public from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of ICON Public from $369.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, ICON Public has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $283.92.

ICON Public Stock Performance

Shares of ICLR stock traded up $3.57 on Friday, reaching $186.21. The stock had a trading volume of 1,663,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 912,099. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.34. ICON Public has a 1 year low of $181.51 and a 1 year high of $347.72. The stock has a market cap of $15.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $204.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $249.28.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ICON Public during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Park Place Capital Corp increased its holdings in ICON Public by 281.4% during the fourth quarter. Park Place Capital Corp now owns 225 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 166 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA raised its position in ICON Public by 48.8% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 250 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in ICON Public by 64.0% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 433 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of ICON Public by 534.0% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 653 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $137,000 after acquiring an additional 550 shares during the last quarter. 95.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.