Reasons to Invest in ICON (ICLR)
ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Select Strategy” third quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. Rising bond rates and the Federal Reserve's shift to a more hawkish stance put pressure on stocks in the third quarter. The strategy underperformed its Russell 3000 Index in the third quarter. Overall stock selection and sector allocation detracted from performance on a relative basis. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
ClearBridge Select Strategy highlighted stocks like ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in the third quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is a clinical research organization. On December 7, 2023, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) stock closed at $268.19 per share. One-month return of ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) was 4.62%, and its shares gained 37.70% of their value over the last 52 weeks. ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) has a market capitalization of $22.079 billion.
ClearBridge Select Strategy made the following comment about ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
"Within health care, we added two new positions that further balance the portfolio. ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR), a contract research organization (CRO), is another durable compounder seeing multiple expansion as a spending slump among its biopharmaceutical customers has not been as severe as feared. Biotech funding trends are stabilizing but could take a few quarters for this to show up in order/sales numbers. We view ICON as the best-positioned clinical CRO, led by a solid management team capable of compounding earnings in the low double digits over the next several years driven by steady revenue, margin expansion and financial leverage. We see ICON as an upgrade to Syneos Health, a rival CRO we exited during the quarter ahead of it being taken private."
A scientist in a laboratory examining a microscope in the pursuit of cell therapy discoveries.
ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 39 hedge fund portfolios held ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) at the end of third quarter which was 40 in the previous quarter.
We discussed ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in another article and shared Polen Capital’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q3 2023 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.
