IQVIA Holdings, Inc. IQV has gained 22.6% over the past year, outperforming the industry’s 5.8% growth but underperforming the S&P 500’s 30% rise.
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The company has an expected long-term EPS (three to five years) growth rate of 13%. Earnings are expected to register year-over-year growth of 11.6% in 2026 and 16.1% in 2027.
Factors That Augur Well for IQVIA’s Success
IQVIA Holdings has taken a major step toward embedding AI directly into life sciences workflows with the launch of IQVIA.ai in collaboration with NVIDIA. By integrating technologies such as NVIDIA Nemotron and the NeMo Agent Toolkit with its proprietary data and domain expertise, IQVIA positions itself as a leader in scalable, compliant AI adoption across regulated environments. The platform unifies analytics, automation and decision-making into a single digital command center, helping organizations improve efficiency, accelerate research and make faster, more informed decisions. Strong early adoption by leading pharmaceutical companies further highlights growing industry confidence in agentic AI as a transformative force in data-driven healthcare innovation.
The company’s commitment toward sustainability is commendable, as IQVIA Holdings delivered strong execution across its People, Public and Planet pillars in 2025. It invested heavily in its workforce through AI upskilling and leadership development while advancing responsible AI adoption under robust governance frameworks. The company expanded access to clinical trials, improved representation of underserved populations and strengthened global health partnerships, reinforcing its patient-centric approach. It reduced its environmental footprint by achieving full My Green Lab certification and lowering packaging emissions. Overall, IQVIA effectively aligned innovation, sustainability and operational performance, strengthening its position in the life sciences industry.
IQV is bolstering its growth and capabilities through a combination of proactive acquisitions and strategic collaborations. The company is strengthening its early-stage R&D capabilities by acquiring drug discovery assets from Charles River Laboratories. This acquisition adds in vitro services, AI-driven platforms and extensive scientific data to support clients across the full discovery continuum. At the same time, its partnership with Duke Clinical Research Institute is accelerating clinical research in obesity and related conditions by combining IQVIA’s global scale and technology with DCRI’s academic and trial execution expertise. Together, these moves enhance IQVIA’s end-to-end offerings, improve operational efficiency and position the company to deliver faster, high-quality outcomes across the drug development lifecycle.
IQVIA Holdings has secured the top spot on the 2026 Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies List for the fifth consecutive year. This recognition reflects strong performance across innovation, financial strength and global competitiveness while reinforcing its credibility in the life sciences sector.
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. At the end of 2025, the company had repurchased shares worth $1.24 billion. This substantial buyback not only lowers the total outstanding share count and boosts earnings per share (EPS) but signals management's belief in the intrinsic value of the stock.
IQV’s Key Risks to Watch
IQV is facing significant challenges arising 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 0.75 at the end 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
Some better-ranked stocks for investors’ consideration are Dave Inc. DAVE and Maximus MMS.
Dave currently sports a Zacks Rank of 1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 10.5% and 24.5% for 2026 and 2027, respectively.
DAVE has an encouraging earnings surprise history. It has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average earnings beat of 54.2%.
Maximus carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). MMS has an expected earnings growth rate of 15% and 5.04% for fiscal 2026 and 2027, respectively.
The company has an encouraging earnings surprise history, as it has topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters while missing in the remaining one, delivering an average earnings surprise of 25.5%.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).