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Here's Why You Should Retain IQVIA Holdings (IQV) Stock Now

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IQVIA Holdings Inc. (IQV - Free Report) has an impressive Growth Score of A. This style score condenses all the essential metrics from a company’s financial statements to get a true sense of quality and sustainability of its growth.

The company has an expected long-term earnings per share (three to five years) growth rate of 15.7%. Earnings are anticipated to register growth of 37.7% and 13.9% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

IQVIA’s shares have surged 68.5% in the past year against a 26.1% decline of the industry it belongs to.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Factors That Auger Well

IQVIA has a consistent record of returning value to shareholders through share repurchase. In 2020, 2019 and 2018, the company had repurchased shares worth $423.1 million, $945 million and $1.41 billion, respectively. Such moves instill investors’ confidence by positively impacting the bottom line.

A set of robust capabilities places IQVIA strongly in the life sciences space and positions it to make most of the market opportunities. The company has a strong healthcare-specific global IT infrastructure, analytics-driven clinical development capabilities, a robust real-world solutions ecosystem as well as a growing set of proprietary clinical and commercial applications that helps it to grow and retain relationships with healthcare stakeholders. The company’s combined offerings of research and development along with commercial services have been helping it to develop trusted relationships, resulting in a diversified base of over 10,000 clients in more than 100 countries.

Risks Associated

IQVIA’s cash and cash equivalent balance of $1.81 billion at the end of second-quarter 2021 was well below the long-term debt level of $12.1 billion. This underscores that the company doesn’t have enough cash to meet this debt burden. The cash level, nevertheless, can meet the short-term debt of $147 million.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

IQVIA Holdings currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are ManpowerGroup Inc. (MAN - Free Report) , Cross Country Healthcare, Inc. (CCRN - Free Report) and Genpact Limited (G - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

The long-term expected earnings per share (three to five years) growth rate for ManpowerGroup, Cross Country Healthcare and Genpact is pegged at 24.2%, 9.9% and 14.7%, respectively.
 

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