4. IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV)
RIT Capital Partners’ Stake Value: $22,426,000
Percentage of RIT Capital Partners’ 13F Portfolio: 7.94%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 63
IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina. The company operates in the life sciences industry, offering advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services. Securities filings for Q4 2021 reveal that RIT Capital Partners owned a $22.4 million stake in IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV), representing 7.94% of the total 13F portfolio.
IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) reported its Q1 earnings on April 27, posting an EPS of $2.47, beating market estimates by $0.05. The $3.57 billion revenue jumped 4.66% year-over-year, outperforming analysts’ predictions by $29.04 million.
On April 28, Piper Sandler analyst Jeff Garro upgraded IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $255, up from $231, after the company’s Q1 results went live. He believes that there is a strong buying opportunity in IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV), whose “wide, deep, and global data assets are meaningfully ahead of competitors”, in addition to solid free cash flow and an improved balance sheet.
According to Insider Monkey’s Q4 data, IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) was found in the public stock portfolios of 63 hedge funds, with collective stakes in the company worth $4.2 billion. Thomas Steyer’s Farallon Capital is the leading shareholder of the company, with 2.93 million shares worth $826.8 million.
Here is what Cooper Investors has to say about IQVIA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:IQV) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:
“During the quarter, IQVIA held an Investor Relations day. Today IQVIA is a leading provider of technology solutions and clinical research services to the life science industry. The portfolio first invested in the IQVIA predecessor IMS Health in late 2015. IMS Health was taken private by private equity in 2010 and re-listed in 2014. Current CEO Ari Bousbib, a former executive at United Technologies was appointed CEO at its privatization and has been the driving force ever since.
Under Ari’s watch IMS first transformed itself from a drug prescription data business to a broader pharmaceutical services provider and then in 2016 merged with Quintiles, the leading Contract Research Organisation (CRO), a business that runs drug trials for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. This merger created the IQVIA we know today. While this was a merger on the surface it was anything but as IMS effectively took control of Quintiles with no premium paid, another in the long line of savvy moves made by Ari and the team.
Along the journey IQVIA management has consistently increased growth rates and expanded the opportunity set for the company. This is a highly commercial team that has built or sought out great quality businesses in attractive and growing life science markets. IMS was an ex-growth business in 2010 and by the time of the Quintiles merger had accelerated to low-to-mid single digits. With the addition of Quintiles and improvement across all aspects of the business revenue growth has been averaging high-single-digits.
At the IR day management now talked to a double-digit revenue growth opportunity. Their markets are growing as fast as they have ever been as more capital flows into biotech and life sciences development. While we have owned the shares for over six years, the business outlook today is the strongest we’ve ever seen it and IQVIA remains a core position.”
