Here's Why You Should Retain IQV Stock in Your Portfolio Now

IQVIA Holdings, Inc. IQV has gained 25.5% over the past three months compared with the industry’s 12.1% rise.

The company has an expected long-term EPS (three to five years) growth rate of 8.38%. Earnings are expected to register year-over-year growth of 6.9% in 2025 and 8.4% in 2026.

Factors That Augur Well for IQVIA’s Success

IQVIA’s collaboration with Amazon Web Services ("AWS") strengthens its position at the intersection of life sciences and advanced AI. By naming AWS as its Preferred Agentic Cloud Provider, IQVIA secures access to a scalable, secure and mature cloud ecosystem that can accelerate clinical trial automation and advanced analytics. The partnership also strengthens IQVIA’s competitive moat, as most leading pharmaceutical companies already rely on both platforms. Over time, this alliance can improve operating efficiency, shorten drug development timelines and increase client stickiness, positioning IQVIA to benefit from the growing adoption of agentic AI across the healthcare and life sciences value chain.

In the third quarter of 2025, IQV’s expanding R&DS backlog was $32.4 billion, up 4.1% year over year, which provides strong revenue visibility, with $8.1 billion expected to convert to revenues over the next 12 months.

Book-to-bill ratios remained healthy, with 1.15X in the third quarter and 1.12X on a trailing-12-month basis, indicating that bookings continue to outpace revenue recognition and support future growth. In addition, net new bookings of $2.6 billion and 13% year-over-year growth in R&DS net bookings, alongside 20% year-over-year growth in RFP activity, point to strengthening client demand and improving decision timelines. These trends reinforce confidence in sustained revenue momentum into 2026.

The company has demonstrated a strong commitment to returning value to its shareholders through an active share repurchase program. In 2024, IQV repurchased shares worth $1.35 billion. Over the nine-month period ending in 2025, the company has repurchased shares worth $1.03 billion. This substantial buyback not only lowers the total outstanding share count and boosts earnings per share (EPS) but also signals management's belief in the intrinsic value of the stock.

IQV’s Key Risks to Watch

IQV is facing significant challenges from weak liquidity. The company’s current ratio (a measure of liquidity) is consistently falling, declining from 1.12 in 2020 to 0.91 in 2021 and 0.89 in 2022, reflecting tightening working capital. The ratio slipped further to 0.86 in 2023 and 0.84 in 2024, before dropping sharply to 0.70 in the third quarter of 2025, underscoring growing pressure on short-term financial flexibility and a heavier reliance on cash flow to meet near-term obligations. A current ratio of less than one is considered undesirable as it indicates that the company does not have sufficient cash to meet its short-term obligations.

IQV’s Zacks Rank

IQV currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Stocks to Consider

A couple of better-ranked stocks are Byrna Technologies BYRN and Veralto Corporation VLTO.

Byrna Technologies currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). BYRN has an expected earnings growth rate of 25.8% and 33.3% for 2025 and 2026, respectively.  

BYRN has an encouraging earnings surprise history as it has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, delivering an average earnings surprise of 167.5%.

Veralto Corporation carries a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

VLTO has expected earnings growth rates of 8.5% and 9.2% for 2025 and 2026, respectively. The company has an encouraging earnings surprise history as it has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters, delivering an average earnings surprise of 6.5%.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research