ICON PLC (ICLR) Trades Below Normal Earnings Despite Strong Fundamentals

Orbis Investment Management released its Q4 2025 investor letter for “Orbis SICAV International Equity Fund”. The Strategy reported a positive year in 2025, with returns driven more by stock-specific research rather than post-pandemic valuation rebounds. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The letter attributes performance to disciplined bottom-up investing and improved execution across several portfolio holdings. It also notes that rising global government debt supports the case for equities as core real assets, with non-US markets offering especially attractive valuations. Orbis suggests the long period of US market dominance may be starting to shift and remains focused on buying fundamentally undervalued businesses where mispricing can correct over time. In addition, you can check the Fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) is a global clinical research organization providing outsourced drug development services to pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies. In Orbis International Equity’s Q4 2025 investor letter, ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) is described as a top holding that was heavily sold off along with the broader biotech sector, with shares halving in value. The one-month return of ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) was approximately +0.65%, and its shares lost about 8.79% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On January 21, 2026, ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) stock closed at approximately $184.87 per share, with a market capitalization of about $14.378 billion.

Orbis International Equity Fund of Q4 stated the following regarding ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) in its Q4 2025 investor letter:

“Similarly, ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR), a top holding that performs drug trials for the pharma and biotech ecosystem, has been tarred with thesame brush as the rest of the sector. The shares halved, falling to a low of around 10 times our estimate of normal earnings— a bargain for a good business with secular growth underpinnings. While we do not know the timing of the recovery from the temporary drop in R&D spending that led to short-term negative operating leverage, we are confident that the industry growth trends will resume, driven by the ongoing need for innovative healthcare as the wealthy baby boomer generation enters their twilight years.”

ICON PLC (ICLR) Trades Below Normal Earnings Despite Strong Fundamentals

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ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 43 hedge fund portfolios held ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) at the end of the third quarter, which was 42 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered ICON PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR) and shared the cheap healthcare stocks worth buying heading into 2026. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2025 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.