'Moody' Analysts Upbeat About Quintiles
Quintiles rejoined the market it left in 2003 when it went public in May after raising more than $1bn (€760m) in its IPO.
Two months on and investment firm Moody’s Investors Services has changed its outlook on Quintiles to positive, citing the firm’s “size, scale and leading position as both a pharmaceutical CRO and a contract sales organization.
“Quintiles, as the largest pharmaceutical service provider, is well-positioned to gain market share and benefit from the industry's growth, the outlook for which is favorable, as pharmaceutical companies look to outsource an increasing portion of their non-core functions.”
Moody’s acknowledged Quintiles - headquartered in Durham, North Carolina – repayment of $350m of debt with proceeds from the IPO, its “significant” cash balance and free cash flow expectation of at least $200m per year.
In June a number of other investment analysts gave their verdicts on Quintiles with a mostly positive or neutral outlook.
Speaking at the time, Tim Evans of Wells Fargo – who gave an outlook of ‘outperform’ and a stock price target of $49 – described Quintiles as “one of the industry’s most disciplined operators” predicting the firm “will continue capturing share from small contract research organisations.”
Following the return to the market in May, Quintiles inked a five year exclusive clinical development agreement with Merck-Serono.
