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Reasons to Retain ICF International (ICFI) in Your Portfolio

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ICF International, Inc. (ICFI - Free Report) is currently focused on investing in technology and business development initiatives to strengthen its organic growth.

The company has an impressive Growth Score of B. This style score condenses all the essential metrics from a company’s financial statements to get a true sense of the quality and sustainability of its growth. ICF’s earnings are expected to increase 9.8% in 2022 and 12.1% in 2023, year over year.

ICF’s shares have gained 7.5% over the past year, outperforming the 1% gain of the industry it belongs to.

Factors That Bode Well

ICF is seeing robust organic growth in its service revenues, driven by strength in IT modernization and digitization, public health, disaster management, and utility consulting services. Service revenues registered organic growth of 6.4% for 2021.

The company is doing well in terms of contract awards. It received $2.25 billion in contract awards in 2021, which increased by 15% year over year. ICF continues to witness increase in demand for its advisory services, driven by trends such as increased government focus on environmental initiatives; emphasis on transparency and accountability; efficiency and mission performance management; generational changes; and increased demand for integrating domain knowledge of client mission and programs with innovative technology-enabled solutions.

The January 2022 buyout of Creative Systems and Consulting has expanded ICF International’s federal IT modernization/digital transformation capabilities with leading Salesforce and Microsoft implementation teams.

Some Risks

ICF International sees an escalation in costs as it is making significant investments in internal infrastructure and acquisitions. The company’s operating expenses increased 3.9% in 2021. These expenses rose 5.1% year over year in 2020 and 9.2% in 2019. 

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

ICF currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Business Services sector that investors may consider are Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN - Free Report) , NV5 Global (NVEE - Free Report) and Clean Harbors (CLH - Free Report) .

Cross Country Healthcare sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company has a long-term earnings growth of 6.6%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Cross Country Healthcare delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 41.5%, on average. CCRN’s shares have surged 76% in the past year.

NV5 Global also carries a Zacks Rank #1. The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 6.1% for the current year. It delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 22.2%, on average.

NV5 Global’s shares have surged 40.1% in the past year. The company has a long-term earnings growth of 14.2%.

Clean Harbors carries a Zacks Rank #1. The company pulled off a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 43.2%, on average.

CLH’s shares have jumped 27.4% in the past year.

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