Here's Why You Should Retain ICLR Stock in Your Portfolio Now

ICON plc ICLR is well-poised to grow in the upcoming quarters, driven by its strategic additions. Leveraging AI and technology advancements, the company is optimizing clinical delivery and has seen strong improvements across several important metrics. Meanwhile, concerns about the adverse macroeconomic impacts and currency fluctuations may hamper its performance.Year to date, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has lost 37.9% compared with the industry’s 3.8% decline. However, the S&P 500 composite has risen 0.1% in the same time period.The leading healthcare intelligence and clinical research organization has a market capitalization of $10.40 billion. The company delivered an earnings surprise of 3.57% in the last reported quarter.Let us delve deeper.Tailwinds for ICON StockPacts to Drive Growth: ICON is committed to expanding its business through strategic acquisitions and partnerships with existing customers while also developing new customer relationships. The company continues to improve its scientific and therapeutic expertise to support its customers in specific areas, including oncology, rare diseases, dermatology, infectious diseases and women's health.In the first quarter of 2025, ICON partnered with Mural Health Technologies, a patient-first clinical trial technology company, to utilize the latter’s participant management and payments platform, Mural Link.Enhancing Innovative Solutions: ICON is focused on innovating in three critical areas: improving clinical trial design and execution, faster and more predictable patient recruitment, and evolving clinical trials to be more patient-centric, which includes data collection and analysis directly from patients’ digital devices. The company’s digital innovation strategy plays a key role in enhancing clinical delivery by integrating AI and key technology advancements into clinical research. In line with this, the company introduced two new AI-enabled tools, iSubmit and SmartDraft, in the first quarter. iSubmit automates the clinical trial document management process primarily through managing electronic trial master files. SmartDraft streamlines the clinical contract drafting process during study startup, allowing sites to shorten overall startup time.ICON’s updated digital platform enables patient-centric decentralized clinical trials and includes updates to essential features such as direct data capture while also integrating with several other ICON solutions, such as the Firecrest portal for site training and communications, as well as the Mapi Research Trust, market-leading clinical outcomes assessment library and other validated instruments.Headwinds for ICON StockMacroeconomic Pressure Persists: Inflation is higher than the historical level and rising labor costs are resulting in significant increases in the cost of ICON services, which it may not be able to recover from its customers. A sustained increase in the cost of sales may require ICON to increase the price of future service offerings. These actions could adversely impact the company’s future revenues, gross margin, or both. In the first quarter of 2025, total revenues decreased 4.3% year over year, and gross margin contracted 170 basis points (bps). Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Foreign Exchange Translation Impacts Sales: Foreign exchange is a major headwind for ICON as it prepares its financial statements in U.S. dollars, while some of its subsidiaries operate in other currencies like the pound sterling and the euro. In addition, the company's contracts with clients, as well as expenses, are in various local currencies, thus exposing it to fluctuations in exchange rates. Accordingly, changes in exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and those other currencies could have an adverse effect on the company’s financial results.Estimate TrendThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for ICON’s 2025 earnings per share has moved 2.1% south to $13.25 in the past 30 days.The consensus estimate for 2025 revenues is pegged at $7.94 billion. This indicates a 4.2% decline from the year-ago reported number.Key PicksSome better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are Phibro Animal Health PAHC, Prestige Consumer Healthcare PBH and Inspire Medical Systems INSP.Phibro Animal Health has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 26.2% compared with the industry’s 15.9%. Its earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 30.6%. Its shares have rallied 26.3% compared with the industry’s 10% growth in the past year.PAHC flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Prestige Consumer Healthcare, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), has an earnings yield of 5.4% compared with the industry’s 0.6%. Shares of the company have rallied 30.3% compared with the industry’s 10% growth. PBH’s earnings surpassed estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and matched on one occasion, the average surprise being 2.8%.Inspire Medical Systems, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 28.9% compared with the industry’s 25.2%. Shares of the company have lost 9.5% against the industry’s 19.6% growth. INSP’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 356.9%.Zacks Names #1 Semiconductor StockIt's only 1/9,000th the size of NVIDIA which skyrocketed more than +800% since we recommended it. NVIDIA is still strong, but our new top chip stock has much more room to boom.With strong earnings growth and an expanding customer base, it's positioned to feed the rampant demand for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things. Global semiconductor manufacturing is projected to explode from $452 billion in 2021 to $803 billion by 2028.See This Stock Now for Free >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report ICON PLC (ICLR): Free Stock Analysis Report Prestige Consumer Healthcare Inc. (PBH): Free Stock Analysis Report Phibro Animal Health Corporation (PAHC): Free Stock Analysis Report Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (INSP): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks