Icon beats Street on Q2 earnings, acquires Mapi Group

Drug development provider Icon PLC (Nasdaq: ICLR) saw its stock jump about 6% in value today after announcing second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations.

The Dublin, Ireland–based company, which serves the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, also said it has acquired the Mapi Group, which provides patient-centered health outcomes research and commercialisation. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For the quarter ended June 30, Icon earned $64.8 million, or $1.19 per share, off $431.0 million in revenue – up from earnings of $61.1 million, or $1.08 per share, off $410.6 million in revenue during the same quarter a year ago.

Minus non-recurring charges, Icon earned $1.31 per share during the second quarter, beating analysts’ consensus by a penny. Revenue was also above the $430.85 million predicted by analysts polled on Yahoo! Finance.

CEO Steve Cutler boasted of  $563 million of new business for the company. He said the company is increasing its full-year earnings per share guidance to a range of $5.18 t0 $5.38, and revenue guidance to a range of $1.74 billion to $1.77 billion. Analysts had previously predicted full-year earnings of $5.17 per share off $1.73 billion in revenue.

The Mapi Group acquisition further expands Icon’s capabilities, Cutler said. On top of adding commercialisation presence, analytics, real world evidence generation and strategic regulatory expertise, the deal gives Icon access to the Mapi Research Trust, touted as the industry’s most subscribed library of clinical outcomes assessments (COAs).

“Our customers will also benefit from Icon’s access to the industry’s broadest set of COA tools and instruments as well as new and enhanced real world data sets,” Cutler said. “Mapi has been a pioneer of late phase and outcomes research since their foundation and we are delighted to welcome their team of experts to Icon.”

Icon’s stock was trading at nearly $106 per share near the end of trading today, up about 6%.

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