Jefferies Financial Group Upgrades Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) to “Buy”

Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) was upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $450.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $340.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target indicates a potential upside of 19.60% from the company’s current price.

MEDP has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group raised Medpace from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $282.00 to $452.00 in a report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Medpace from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Medpace in a research note on Monday, March 18th. They set a “hold” rating and a $395.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Medpace from $312.00 to $408.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Medpace currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $395.60.

Medpace Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MEDP opened at $376.26 on Tuesday. Medpace has a 1-year low of $187.03 and a 1-year high of $419.42. The stock has a market cap of $11.66 billion, a PE ratio of 42.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.38. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $396.82 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $322.00.

Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The company reported $2.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.22 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $498.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $498.72 million. Medpace had a net margin of 15.00% and a return on equity of 63.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. 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 news, VP Susan E. Burwig sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $403.00, for a total transaction of $41,106.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 15,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,117,943. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, VP Susan E. Burwig sold 102 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $403.00, for a total transaction of $41,106.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 15,181 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,117,943. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Ashley M. Keating sold 250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $409.87, for a total transaction of $102,467.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 250 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,467.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 189,340 shares of company stock valued at $76,651,647 over the last ninety days. 20.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Medpace

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MEDP. RiverPark Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Medpace during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Medpace in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Medpace during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in Medpace during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Medpace during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. 77.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Medpace

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.