Icon upbeat for 2017 despite missing revenue targets

Icon shares recovered from an early decline yesterday as the Irish clinical research and drug development services firm met fourth- quarter earnings targets, but narrowly came up short on revenue estimates.

The company’s shares are listed on Nasdaq. It saw its shares slip by just under 1% on the back of announcing its annual results for 2016. A net profit of $74.3m (€69.8m) was reported for the final three months of last year — representing a 17.1% increase on the same period last year.

The fourth-quarter earnings were in line with Wall Street analysts expectations, but revenues for the period — showing a near 8% year-on-year rise to $435.1m — narrowly missed expectations for sales of $441m.