Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Irish-based drug developer ICON reported on Thursday its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year, 2016, showing that the fourth quarter net revenue grew 7.9% year on year to $435.1 million from $403.3 in 2015. This represented 8.4% constant currency growth and 4.2% constant dollar organic growth year on year. Income from operations in the fourth quarter increased by 12.3% to $84.6 million, or 19.5% of revenue, compared to $75.3 million or 18.7% for the same quarter in 2015. Net income in the fourth quarter increased by 17.1% to $74.3 million, or $1.33 per share, on a diluted basis, compared with $63.4 million or $1.11 per share for the same quarter in 2015. The tax rate during the quarter benefited from a positive one off item resulting in a 9% effective rate.

Full year revenue increased by 5.8% to $1,666 million from $1,575 million in 2015. This represented 6.4% constant currency growth and 3.2% constant dollar organic growth year on year. Full year income from operations increased by 13.6% to $319.9 million, or 19.2% of revenue, compared with $281.5 million or 17.9% of revenue in the previous year. Full year net income increased by 12.4% to $269.3 million, compared with $239.5 million in 2015. Full year earnings per share increased by 19.8% to a pro-forma $4.77 per share on a diluted basis, compared to $3.98 per diluted share in 2015.

Cash generated from operating activities for the quarter was $123.5 million and $259.2 million for the full year. Capital expenditure for the quarter was $13.3 million and $42.6 million for the full year. During the quarter ICON spent $110 million on share repurchases. In addition, $54 million was spent on acquisitions in 2016. As a result, at December 31, 2016, the company had net debt of $88 million, compared to net debt of $98 million at September 30, 2016 and net debt of $158 million at end of December 2015.

ICON CEO Ciaran Murray commented: “2016 was another good year for ICON. We grew our backlog by 8% year on year to $4.2 billion, constant currency revenues increased by 6.4% to $1.666 billion and we exited 2016 with an operating margin of 19.5%. This enabled us to grow EPS by 19.8% year on year to $4.77. We expect 2017 to be another year of revenue and earnings growth as we continue to build and diversify our customer base.”

ICON currently, operates from 87 locations in 38 countries and has approximately 12,500 employees.

The full consolidated income statements and summary balance sheet data can be read here.