Should You Consider Buying ICON (ICLR) Shares?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “SMID Cap Growth Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. During the fourth quarter, the ClearBridge SMID Cap Growth Strategy outperformed its Russell 2500 Growth Index benchmark. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains across seven of the 10 sectors in which it was invested during the quarter (out of 11 sectors total), with the industrials sector the leading contributor, while the consumer discretionary and IT sectors were the primary detractors.  Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

ClearBridge Investments SMID Cap Growth Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 1990, ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) is a Dublin, Ireland-based clinical research organization company with a $20.4 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Steve Cutler. ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) delivered a -19.09% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 27.25%. The stock closed at $250.58 per share on March 28, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments SMID Cap Growth Strategy has to say about ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“Our aversion toward early-stage biotech proved productive as did our approach of emphasizing the enablers and selected, profitable medical technology companies. Strong contributors during the fourth quarter included contract research organization ICON whose recent acquisition of PRA Health Sciences should augment underlying business growth.”

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Our calculations show that ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) failed to obtain a mark on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) was in 29 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 35 funds in the previous quarter. ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) delivered a -18.12% return in the past 3 months.

In February 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:ICLR) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

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