ICON (ICLR) - They Never Miss and Give Us a Chance at Cheap Shares

Agh! Yes, I want to be in the "healthcare is safe" joy ride, but only with a handful of selected stocks - ICON (ICLR) is one of them. But they had to, yet again, provide an outstanding quarter; with yet another increase in guidance and yet again not allowing me in at cheaper valuations. (couldn't they miss, just once?) Now I like healthcare as much as the next guy (ok, not really) but even with the newest guidance this stock trades at 33x forward estimates. But perhaps that is the price we pay for 'safety' in this day and age.

• Net revenues for the quarter were $218.3 million, representing a 48.5% increase over net revenues of $147 million for the comparative quarter last year. Year-to-date, net revenues were $419.6 million, representing a 48.2% increase over the same period last year.
• Income from operations was $24.4 million, compared to $16.1 million for the same quarter last year. Operating margin increased to 11.2% from 10.9%. Net income was $18.8 million or 62 cents per share on a diluted basis, compared with $13.3 million or 45 cents per share last year. (+38%)
• “It was another quarter of excellent bookings, which were $393 million gross and $337 million net” said CEO Peter Gray. “As a result of these strong business wins we continue to expand our global capability through opening new offices and hiring new staff and we now have in excess of 6500 staff working in 71 offices in 38 countries.
• The strength of demand for our global services has led us to increase our revenue guidance for 2008 to $870 - $890 million, and our EPS guidance to $2.46 - $2.52.”

• On average, analysts reporting to Thomson Financial expect a profit of $2.44 per share on $852.7 million in revenue.
• In December, Icon forecast a 2008 profit of $2.27 to $2.36 per share on revenue between $750 million and $770 million. After reporting its first-quarter earnings in April, it raised those expectations to $2.35 to $2.45 per share on revenue of $840 million to $860 million.