Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) Rating Increased to Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) was upgraded by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $450.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $340.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 13.19% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Medpace in a research report on Monday, March 18th. They set a “hold” rating and a $395.00 price target for the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Medpace from $312.00 to $408.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Medpace from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 23rd. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Medpace from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $282.00 to $452.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $443.00.

Medpace Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of MEDP stock opened at $397.56 on Tuesday. Medpace has a 12 month low of $189.30 and a 12 month high of $421.00. The stock has a market cap of $12.32 billion, a PE ratio of 40.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.38. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $397.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $323.66.

Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 22nd. The company reported $3.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.45 by $0.75. Medpace had a return on equity of 65.98% and a net margin of 15.92%. The business had revenue of $511.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $512.39 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.27 EPS. Medpace’s revenue was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Medpace will post 10.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Medpace news, VP Susan E. Burwig sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.00, for a total value of $41,106.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 15,181 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,117,943. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO August J. Troendle sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $412.98, for a total transaction of $41,298,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,833,019 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,995,940,186.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan E. Burwig sold 102 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.00, for a total value of $41,106.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 15,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,117,943. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 189,340 shares of company stock worth $76,651,647 in the last three months. 20.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MEDP. RiverPark Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Medpace during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Medpace during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Medpace in the first quarter worth $27,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new stake in Medpace in the first quarter worth $28,000. Finally, FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Medpace in the third quarter worth $30,000. 77.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Medpace Company Profile

Medpace Holdings, Inc provides clinical research-based drug and medical device development services in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company offers a suite of services supporting the clinical development process from Phase I to Phase IV in various therapeutic areas. It provides clinical development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries; and development plan design, coordinated central laboratory, project management, regulatory affairs, clinical monitoring, data management and analysis, pharmacovigilance new drug application submissions, and post-marketing clinical support services.