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IQVIA Holdings Inc. (IQV), headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, provides advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry. Valued at $39.40 billion by market cap, the company creates intelligent connections across all aspects of healthcare through its analytics, transformative technology, big data resources, extensive domain expertise, and network of partners.
Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as “large-cap stocks,” and IQV perfectly fits that description, signifying its substantial size, stability, and dominance in its industry. The company’s solutions help deliver insights to its customers to accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments that help improve healthcare outcomes for patients.
The healthcare solutions provider has fallen 17.4% from its 52-week high of $261.73, which it hit on Mar. 8. Shares of IQV are down 13.9% over the past three months, underperforming the broader S&P 500 Healthcare Sector SPDR (XLV) marginal gains over the same time frame.
Longer term, IQV shares have risen 1.6% over the past year and declined 6% in 2024. By contrast, the XLV is up 7.5% on a YTD basis and 11.1% over the past 52 weeks.
To confirm the bearish price trend, the stock has been trading below its 50-day moving average since early April and its 200-day moving average since late May.
On May 2, IQV reported its Q1 results. Its adjusted EPS was $2.54, beating the consensus estimates of $2.47. Revenue stood at $3.74 billion, surpassing the Wall Street estimates of $3.69 billion. The company expects full-year adjusted EPS between $10.95 and $11.25 and revenue between $15.33 billion and $15.58 billion. The stock closed down more than 4% on the day the results were released and has been on a downtrend since then.
Rival Veeva Systems Inc. (VEEV) has outperformed IQV with 3.6% losses on a YTD basis. However, IQV’s gains in the past 52 weeks outshine VEEV’s 7.6% losses over this period.
Despite its recent underperformance compared to other healthcare stocks, analysts are optimistic about IQV’s prospects. The stock has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy” from the 19 analysts covering it, and the mean price target of $267.16 is a 23.5% premium to current levels.
On the date of publication, Dipanjan Banchur did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
