Pgiam/iStock via Getty Images Investment Summary Since my last publication on IQVIA Holdings Inc. ( NYSE: IQV ) in January 2023, there have been multiple positive updates to the company's fundamental economics. Last time, I commented on the company's strengths in unlocking risk capital for shareholders, namely via 1) exceptional net operating profit after tax relative to the capital invested to produce these numbers, 2) decompression of post-tax margins with increasing capital turnover, and 3) the company's propensity to throw off stable, high amounts of free cash flow to its owners.
Figure 1. IQV price evolution, 12 months Seeking Alpha You can check out a deeper analysis on what the company does, its business lines, and recent business trends in my prior IQV analyses (click here , here , and here ). To recall, IQVA is in the advanced analytics and clinical research services business.
It has three divisions, (i) technology and analytics, (ii) research and development, and (iii) contract sales and medical solutions; each serves the global life sciences industry. In 2014, the company did $4.16 billion of revenues on $357 million of earnings.
It had grown this to $11.08 billion in sales on $191 million in earnings by 2020 and printed $14.9 billion in revenues last year with earnings of $1.
36 billion. This translates to exceptional growth of ~17.6% per year from 2014-2020, with another 11% compounding growth from 2020-2023.
Similarly, earnings have grown at a strong CAGR of 22% .