Quintiles Transitional Holdings Inc. (Q) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

Quintiles Transitional Holdings Inc. (NYSE:Q) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The medical research company reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.04, Bloomberg Earnings reports. The company had revenue of $1.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.96 billion. Quintiles Transitional Holdings had a return on equity of 15.68% and a net margin of 0.82%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 68.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.93 EPS. Quintiles Transitional Holdings updated its Q3 guidance to $1.10-1.15 EPS and its FY17 guidance to $4.50-4.65 EPS.

Quintiles Transitional Holdings (Q) traded down 0.75% during trading on Friday, hitting $90.42. The stock had a trading volume of 1,263,883 shares. Quintiles Transitional Holdings has a 12 month low of $70.10 and a 12 month high of $93.53. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $89.50 and a 200-day moving average of $82.85. The stock has a market cap of $19.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 200.04 and a beta of 0.64.

Quintiles Transitional Holdings declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 24th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the medical research company to purchase up to 5.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Several brokerages have commented on Q. Barclays PLC increased their target price on Quintiles Transitional Holdings from $98.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Quintiles Transitional Holdings from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Group LLC reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $94.00 target price on shares of Quintiles Transitional Holdings in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $92.00 target price on shares of Quintiles Transitional Holdings in a research note on Friday. Finally, William Blair upgraded Quintiles Transitional Holdings from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $70.10 to $93.42 in a research note on Friday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.88.

COPYRIGHT VIOLATION WARNING: “[[title]]” was reported by [[site]] and is the sole property of of [[site]]. If you are viewing this story on another site, it was copied illegally and reposted in violation of U.S. and international trademark & copyright laws. The legal version of this story can be read at [[permalink]].

In other news, Director Jack M. Greenberg sold 6,092 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.50, for a total transaction of $502,590.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $241,725. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Cpp Investment Board Private H sold 7,131,165 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.01, for a total transaction of $599,089,171.65. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,758,400 shares of company stock worth $735,783,985 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 6.40% of the company’s stock.

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Quintiles Transitional Holdings by 4,217.1% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,098,723 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $571,660,000 after buying an additional 6,934,290 shares during the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd raised its stake in Quintiles Transitional Holdings by 1.1% in the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 49,056 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,950,000 after buying an additional 545 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management CA raised its stake in Quintiles Transitional Holdings by 0.3% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management CA now owns 558,238 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $44,955,000 after buying an additional 1,803 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its stake in Quintiles Transitional Holdings by 35.4% in the first quarter. Creative Planning now owns 4,482 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 1,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. raised its stake in Quintiles Transitional Holdings by 31.5% in the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 22,313 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,797,000 after buying an additional 5,340 shares during the last quarter. 92.47% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Quintiles Transitional Holdings

Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc, formerly Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc, provides integrated information and technology-enabled healthcare services. The Company operates through segments, including Commercial Solutions; Research & Development Solutions, and Integrated Engagement Services. The Commercial Solutions segment offerings include national information offerings, sub-national information offerings, technology solutions, and workflow analytics and consulting services.