Is ICON Public Limited Company (ICLR) a Fundamentally Strong Stock to Invest In?

Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Global Growth Strategy” third-quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The fund was down -8.63% in the third quarter compared to a -6.82% decline for the MSCI ACW Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.

Polen Capital discussed stocks like ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR). Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is a clinical research company. On October 21, 2022, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) stock closed at $177.99 per share. One-month return of ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) was -6.73% and its shares lost 35.86% of their value over the last 52 weeks. ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) has a market capitalization of $14.511 billion.

Polen Capital made the following comment about ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“While not reflected in the stock price performance, fundamentals remain solid for ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) this year. The integration with PRA Health is progressing nicely, customer retention remains high (it has had no significant customers leave), and employee attrition continues to improve. Despite continued disruption from COVID, weakness in biotech funding, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, top-line growth remains in line with long-term expectations of mid- to high-single-digits.

Additionally, ICON continues to expect to reach $10 billion in sales by 2025. Specifically, in 2022, sales grew 7.8% and 4.4%, respectively, in the first and second quarters on a constant currency basis. And, in the second quarter, sales grew 16% excluding COVID-related studies.

Profitability remains stable to slightly improving as COVID related studies continue to wind down (these studies have lower gross margins on average), with gross margins in the high-20s and operating margins in the mid- to high-teens. The combined company, which benefits from tremendous scale advantages, continues to win new business, and growth in backlog has accelerated (to $20 billion as of the end of the second quarter).”

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ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 26 hedge fund portfolios held ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) at the end of the second quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter.

We discussed ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in another article and shared Baron Funds’ views on the company in the previous quarter. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.