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Research Alert: CFRA Maintains Hold Rating On Shares Of Icon Public Limited Company
CFRA, an independent research provider, has providedwith the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:We raise our 12-month price target to $150 from $120, representing 14.3x our 2026 EPS estimate, below peers and ICLR's 16.1x forward P/E average over the past five years. Our 2026 EPS view is $10.50 (down from $12.66), and we start our 2027 estimate at $11.96. While we think ICLR's accounting issues have been resolved, the company continues to operate within a challenging environment for life sciences tools & services firms, and the sub-industry trades at a wide discount to recent historical valuations. We expect 2026 will be a trough year in terms of sales, margins, and earnings before growth improves in 2027. ICLR's stricter cancellation policy resulted in a one-time $3.9 billion downward adjustment to the backlog ($21.8B as of year-end 2025). However, management noted that over 75% of this adjustment related to awards from 2023 or earlier. ICLR does not pay a shareholder dividend, but the company repurchased $750M of stock during 2025 at an average price of $167 per share.