Another Solid Quarter of Bookings; TTM Approaching 1.20x

Research evidence excerpt

Another Solid Quarter of Bookings; TTM Approaching 1.20x

Deutsche Bank

Research

Rating Company Date

Buy ICON, plc 24 June 2026

North America Reuters Bloomberg Rating Buy

United States ICLR.OQ ICLR US Price target (USD) 180.00 Price at 23 Jun 26 142.67

52-week range 202.92 – 80.08

Health Care

Contract Research Valuation & Risks

Organizations

Another Solid Quarter of Bookings; TTM

Approaching 1.20x JustinResearchBowersAnalyst

+1-917-517-9836

Portfolio Manager Summary

Sam Martin Icon delivered 1Q26 results that were favorable to both Street estimates / DBe on Research Associate

the top and bottom lines. The 1Q26 results came in better across all projected

metrics communicated nearly one month ago following its delayed 4Q25 results.

The highlight was book-to-bill coming in at 1.42x vs 1.36x for 4Q25 and

importantly, Icon is now tracking at the hallowed 1.20x book-to-bill on a TTM

basis which under normal conditions translates to mid-to-high single digit organic

revenue growth in future period(s). The Street will likely query if this CRO mental

model still holds or if something idiosyncratic to Icon’s mix / pass throughs or this

industry cycle change the algo.

Margins were the other key KPI investors were focusing on entering the quarter

and Icon delivered 15.6% EBITDA margins, which is slightly better than prior

messaging of similar to 4Q25 and slightly lower than the +20-30 bps of QoQ

improvement the buy side was looking for. Since the margins are also a function

of inflated pass through revenues for which investors have limited visibility we

chalk up the margin performance to in line with EPS coming in +3% versus the

sell-side and investors now comfortably able to underwrite the low-end of the

2026 EPS guidance of $10.00-11.00 on operations alone and upside from capital