IQVIA Holdings (IQV) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $30.34B
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Average Volume (3M): 2.61M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 22.8
• Beta (1Y): 0.89
• Revenue Growth: 3.85%
• EPS Growth: -4.74%
• Country: US
• Employees: 89,000
• Sector: Healthcare
• Sector Strength: 45
• Industry: Medical - Diagnostics & Research
• EPS (TTM): 3.42
• Shares Outstanding: 169,700,000
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 2,878,048
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 2,612,557
• PEG Ratio: 6.34
• Price to Book (P/B): 5.96
• Price to Sales (P/S): 2.38
• P/FCF Ratio: 18.89
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.45
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 2.69
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 10.23
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 12.66
• 1Y Price Target: $227.31
• Price Target Upside: 27.12% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Strong Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 16
• EPS Forecast (FY): 12.69
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $17.24B

• Rating: 59 Neutral
• Price Target: $169.00 ▼(-5.49% Downside)
• Action: Reiterated Date: 02/07/26
• Date: Action: Reiterated 02/07/26

The score is driven primarily by decent underlying fundamentals but constrained by high leverage and recent margin/cash-flow pressure. Technicals are notably weak (below major moving averages with bearish momentum), while valuation is only moderate. The latest earnings call was constructive with solid FY2026 guidance and strong backlog, partially offset by margin pressure and rising interest expense.

Positive Factors

Diversified, steady revenue growth

IQVIA’s revenue base has grown steadily over several years, reflecting strength across its Technology & Analytics and R&D services. Persistent top-line expansion supports scale advantages, recurring analytics subscriptions and resilience versus single-product cyclicality, underpinning durable cash generation and market positioning.

Solid cash generation and FCF conversion

Consistent operating cash flow and high free cash flow conversion give IQVIA the ability to fund organic growth, invest in AI/tech, and return capital while servicing debt. The FCF profile supports strategic flexibility over multiple years, even as timing of cash can vary with project cadence.

Strategic AI leadership and partnerships

Leading recognition and deep cloud/GPU partnerships create a durable competitive moat for IQVIA’s analytics and tech offerings. Embedded AI agents and vendor alliances accelerate productization of insights, increase switching costs for clients, and position the company to monetize secular demand for AI-enabled life‑sciences solutions.

Negative Factors

High leverage and rising debt

Elevated and rising gross debt leaves IQVIA sensitive to higher interest costs and reduces financial flexibility. High leverage constrains the company’s ability to pursue large organic investments or aggressive M&A without pressuring cash available for deleveraging, and increases refinancing and liquidity risk during rate cycles.

Recent margin compression

A sharp drop in gross margin erodes operating leverage and limits incremental profitability from revenue growth. If driven by pass‑throughs, product mix or cost inflation, sustained compression would reduce free cash flow and weaken the company’s ability to absorb higher interest costs or fund capex and strategic investments.

Free cash flow volatility and step‑down

A meaningful year‑over‑year FCF decline increases uncertainty around the timeline for debt reduction or sustained buybacks. Cash‑flow volatility makes planning for multi‑year deleveraging or large R&D/AI investments harder and heightens the importance of maintaining conservative liquidity buffers.

IQVIA Holdings Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

IQVIA Holdings Inc. provides advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and related implementation services; real world solutions that enable life sciences and provider customers to generate and disseminate evidence, which informs health care decision making and improves patients' outcomes; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services. This segment also provides country level performance metrics related to sales of pharmaceutical products, prescribing trends, medical treatment, and promotional activity across various channels, including retail, hospital, and mail order; and measurement of sales or prescribing activity at the regional, zip code, and individual prescriber level. The Research & Development Solutions segment offers project management and clinical monitoring; clinical trial support; virtual trials; and strategic planning and design services, as well as central laboratory, genomic, bioanalytical, ADME, discovery, and vaccine and biomarker laboratory services. The Contract Sales & Medical Solutions segment provides health care provider and patient engagement services, and scientific strategy and medical affairs services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device and diagnostic, and consumer health companies. The company has a strategic collaboration with HealthCore, Inc. The company was formerly known as Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to IQVIA Holdings Inc. in November 2017. IQVIA Holdings Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

How the Company Makes Money

IQVIA generates revenue through a diversified model that includes consulting services, technology solutions, and contract research services. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers data analytics and software solutions that help clients make informed decisions in drug development and market access, which contributes significantly to its revenue. The Contract Research Services segment provides clinical trial management and related services, generating revenue through project-based contracts with pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, IQVIA has established strategic partnerships with healthcare organizations and technology companies, allowing it to expand its service offerings and access new markets. The company also benefits from a subscription-based revenue model for certain analytics services, contributing to recurring revenue streams.

IQVIA Holdings Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Profitability and earnings power have improved since 2020 and cash generation remains solid, but the balance sheet is highly leveraged (debt >2x equity; rising debt) and 2025 showed pressure with a sharp gross-margin drop and a step down in free cash flow versus 2024.

Income Statement

Revenue has expanded steadily from $11.36B (2020) to $16.31B (2025), but growth slowed materially in 2024 (~2.8%) and remained modest in 2023–2022 (~3.9%). Profitability is solid and improving versus earlier years: net margin rose from ~2.5% (2020) to ~8.3% (2025), and operating profitability remains healthy (2025 EBIT margin ~14.2%, EBITDA margin ~21.2%). The main concern is margin compression in 2025 (gross margin ~26.3% vs ~34.9% in 2024), which pressures earnings quality if it persists despite higher revenue.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is leveraged: total debt increased to $16.17B (2025) from $14.16B (2024), with debt running about 2.49x equity in 2025 (consistently >2x across the period). Equity is positive and has grown to $6.50B, and returns on equity are strong (~21% in 2025), indicating effective profitability on the capital base. However, the combination of rising debt and high leverage reduces flexibility and increases sensitivity to higher rates or earnings volatility.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is generally solid: operating cash flow was $2.65B and free cash flow was $2.05B in 2025, with free cash flow consistently covering a large portion of net income (about 70–78% across years; ~77% in 2025). The key weakness is volatility and a recent step down in free cash flow (2025 down ~22% vs 2024), which contrasts with the relatively stable earnings profile. Operating cash flow relative to debt is moderate (about 32% in 2025), suggesting debt reduction would likely require multiple years of steady cash flow.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	16.31B	15.40B	14.98B	14.41B	13.87B
Gross Profit	4.29B	5.38B	5.24B	5.03B	4.64B
EBITDA	3.46B	3.45B	3.26B	2.91B	2.77B
Net Income	1.36B	1.37B	1.36B	1.09B	966.00M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	29.94B	26.90B	26.68B	25.34B	24.69B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	2.14B	1.84B	1.50B	1.31B	1.48B
Total Debt	16.17B	14.16B	13.90B	13.01B	12.44B
Total Liabilities	23.31B	20.83B	20.57B	19.57B	18.65B
Stockholders Equity	6.50B	6.07B	6.11B	5.76B	6.04B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	2.05B	2.11B	1.50B	1.59B	2.30B
Operating Cash Flow	2.65B	2.72B	2.15B	2.26B	2.94B
Investing Cash Flow	-2.31B	-1.44B	-1.60B	-2.01B	-2.10B
Financing Cash Flow	-150.00M	-878.00M	-382.00M	-329.00M	-1.24B

IQVIA Holdings Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Negative
• Last Price: 178.81
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Negative
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For IQV, the sentiment is Negative. The current price of 178.81 is below the 20-day moving average (MA) of 181.66, below the 50-day MA of 212.81, and below the 200-day MA of 193.29, indicating a bearish trend. The MACD of -14.39 indicates Negative momentum. The RSI at 42.40 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 72.07 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Negative sentiment for IQV.

IQVIA Holdings Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
MEDP	76 Outperform	$12.82B	29.54	70.23%	―	13.88%	23.92%
ICLR	70 Outperform	$8.26B	14.62	6.27%	―	-2.46%	-17.89%
DGX	70 Neutral	$23.28B	24.24	14.17%	1.80%	13.74%	14.87%
DHR	67 Neutral	$148.95B	41.74	7.05%	0.53%	2.90%	-4.81%
TMO	61 Neutral	$193.58B	29.38	13.02%	0.30%	3.91%	7.09%
IQV	59 Neutral	$30.34B	22.76	21.64%	―	3.85%	-4.74%
Sector *	51 Neutral	$7.86B	-0.30	-43.30%	2.27%	22.53%	-2.21%

IQVIA Holdings Corporate Events

IQVIA Holdings Amends Credit Agreement for Refinancing

On December 9, 2025, IQVIA Holdings Inc. amended its Fifth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement to refinance its term loans and revolving credit commitments into new classes, reduce interest rates on certain loans, and release specific subsidiaries from borrowing obligations. This strategic financial restructuring is likely to enhance IQVIA’s operational efficiency and financial flexibility, potentially strengthening its position in the healthcare analytics and research market.

The most recent analyst rating on (IQV) stock is a Buy with a $248.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on IQVIA Holdings stock, see the IQV Stock Forecast page.