ICON plc (ICLR) Reports FY18 EPS & Revenue Guidance Above Consensus

ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR) today announced its financial guidance for the year ended December 31, 2018. For the full year 2018 revenue will be in the range of $1,870 - $1,930 million, representing growth of 7 - 10% and earnings per share will be in the range of $5.89 - $6.09, representing growth of 10 - 13%.

CEO Steve Cutler commented “We expect 2018 to be another strong year of revenue and earnings progression for ICON. The momentum created by our positive business win trends has helped diversify our business by adding new sponsors and partnerships across all customer segments. Consequently we expect revenue to grow by 7 - 10% to a range of $1,870 - $1,930 million whilst reducing our full year concentration of our largest customer to circa 12 – 14%. Furthermore, by leveraging our support infrastructure, we aim to continue our best in industry cost management approach and expect earnings per share to increase by 10 – 13% to a range of $5.89 - $6.09. In addition to this organic growth, we will continue to focus on deploying capital to maximise shareholder value through a combination of M&A and share repurchases.”

The full year 2018 financial guidance assumes:

• Top customer concentration to reduce to circa 12 - 14% of revenue from circa 18% in 2017.
• US dollar to Euro exchange rate of $1.20 (constant currency revenue growth of circa 7%).
• An effective tax rate of circa 12%.
• Circa $360 million of free cash flow and capital expenditures of circa $50 million.
• $25 million worth of shares repurchased in Q4 2017 from current up to $400 million repurchase programme contributing circa 3c to 2018 earnings.
• Remaining authorisation of up to $157 million to be executed opportunistically during 2018 depending on cash commitments to support M&A pipeline, no additional earnings benefit included in guidance.

With respect to 2017, the company confirmed its current guidance, of revenue in the range of $1,740 – $1,770 million and earnings in the range of $5.30 - $5.40.

ICON will be presenting at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference on January 9th at 9:30am PT (12:30pm EST, 5:30pm Ireland & UK). This presentation and follow-on Q&A can be accessed live from the ICON website at http://investor.iconplc.com. A recording will also be available on the website for 90 days following the call.

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