Now Is A Suitable Moment For A Long-Term Purchase Of Medpace Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MEDP)

Fuller & Thaler Asset Management, recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Medpace Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MEDP). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 69.31% to 0.81 million shares with purchase of 0.33 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 2.62% valued currently at $170.83 million. In addition, Boston Trust Walden, Inc. raised its holdings by 10282.0 to 0.7 million shares. And Echo Street Capital Management LL has lifted its position by 0.17% or 1128.0 shares – to 0.65 million shares.

With over 0.48 million Medpace Holdings Inc. (MEDP) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $223.29 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $107.35 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 47.03% and its price on 01/10/23 gained nearly 5.91%. Currently, there are 31.01M common shares owned by the public and among those 23.76M shares have been available to trade.

An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for MEDP have a consensus price objective of $218.33. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $238.00 and a low of $200.00. The average price target is -2.27% below its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -11.64% over that period. But an upside of 6.18% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $217.00.

Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 46 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 41 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 2,137,030 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 5 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 25,130 shares.

The top 3 mutual fund holders in Medpace Holdings Inc. are Capitol Series Trust – Fuller & T, iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. Capitol Series Trust – Fuller & T owns 0.84 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $176.85 million. The company bought an additional 81000.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.71% of the shares outstanding. iShares Core S&P Mid Cap ETF sold 146.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 0.76 million shares valued at over $160.2 million and representing 2.45% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 4172.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 0.75 million shares at a value of $157.07 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 2.41% of the shares outstanding.

Shares of Medpace Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MEDP) opened at $210.44, down -$0.38 from a prior closing price of $210.82. However, the script later moved the day high at 226.67, up 5.91%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 7.21% and 40.79% over the past three months. MEDP shares are trading 5.12% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 18.76% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $126.94 and touched a high of $235.72 over the same period. MEDP has an average intraday trading volume of 382.59K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 6.70%, 4.96%, and 32.15% respectively.

Institutional ownership of Medpace Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MEDP) shares accounts for 85.90% of the company’s 31.01M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 40.63%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 47.24% and 37.04% respectively.

It has a market capitalization of $6.88B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.45. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 34.27, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $6.51. The company has a PEG of 2.41 and a Quick Ratio of 0.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.40. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 3.81% over the week and 3.24% over the month.

Analysts forecast that Medpace Holdings Inc. (MEDP) will achieve an EPS of $1.78 for the current quarter, $1.8 for the next quarter and $7.72 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.74 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.82. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.32 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 25.20%, and 11.48% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 14.21% over the next five years, compared to 67.20% over the past 5-year period.

If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate Medpace Holdings Inc. (MEDP) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.60. Specifically, 1 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 4 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”

Looking at the support for the MEDP, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. UBS stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on October 27, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $142-$238. UBS coverage for the Medpace Holdings Inc. (MEDP) stock in a research note released on September 07, 2022 offered a Sell rating with a price target of $142. Guggenheim was of a view on May 24, 2022 that the stock is Neutral, while Credit Suisse gave the stock Outperform rating on August 05, 2021, issuing a price target of $205. Truist on their part issued Buy rating on October 02, 2020.