IQVIA (IQV)
Forward P/E is 20.22x against a peer median of 30.89x, a ratio of 0.65x — well below the 0.90 fair-band floor — with trailing P/E 34.01x and PEG 1.75. Latest-quarter revenue grew 8.0% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), close to the group pace. Value-trap check: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the group median growth is positive, so the discount stands. Delivered demand check: the Life sciences tools & services group's median growth was 8.1% year over year — demand rising, and this company is growing close to that pace.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E rises above about 27.8x (0.90x the peer median) at unchanged estimates, or if revenue growth falls below 0% year over year for two quarters. Move further from fair value if the forward P/E falls below about 18x while revenue growth stays above 8% year over year.
IQVIA runs clinical trials for drug companies and sells health-care data. Its shares cost much less than similar companies — about 20 times expected earnings against about 31 times for peers — while its sales grow at about the same pace. That makes the shares look undervalued.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window IQVIA returned +64.45% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for IQVIA: -51.5% (2021-12-30 to 2025-05-23). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 20.22x against a peer median of 30.89x, a ratio of 0.65x — well below the 0.90 fair-band floor — with trailing P/E 34.01x and PEG 1.75. Latest-quarter revenue grew 8.0% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), close to the group pace. Value-trap check: revenue is growing, not shrinking, and the group median growth is positive, so the discount stands. Delivered demand check: the Life sciences tools & services group's median growth was 8.1% year over year — demand rising, and this company is growing close to that pace. The company’s forward P/E is 20.2× against a peer median of 30.9×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Life sciences tools & services group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 8.1% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. This company grew 8.0%, essentially at that pace. Latest-quarter sales growth was +8.0% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| IQVIA (IQV) | $280.76 | 20.2× | 34.0× |
| WAT | — | 30.9× | 216.8× |
| ILMN | — | 51.0× | 54.1× |
| A | — | 27.8× | 36.0× |
| MTD | — | 34.9× | 38.6× |
| CRL | — | 30.6× | — |
| Peer median | 30.9× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Sep 2026 2026-09-30 | $4.4B | — | $350M | 2.10 | $667M |
| Q/E Jun 2026 2026-06-30 | $4.4B | — | $256M | 1.53 | $360M |
| Q/E Mar 2026 2026-03-31 | $4.2B | — | $274M | 1.61 | $491M |
| Q/E Dec 2025 2025-12-31 | $4.4B | — | $514M | — | $561M |
| Q/E Sep 2025 2025-09-30 | $4.1B | — | $331M | 1.93 | $772M |
| Q/E Jun 2025 2025-06-30 | $4.0B | — | $266M | 1.54 | $292M |
| Q/E Mar 2025 2025-03-31 | $3.8B | — | $249M | 1.40 | $426M |
| Q/E Dec 2024 2024-12-31 | $4.0B | — | $437M | — | $721M |
| Q/E Sep 2024 2024-09-30 | $3.9B | 23.5% | $285M | 1.55 | $571M |
| Q/E Jun 2024 2024-06-30 | $3.8B | 22.6% | $363M | 1.97 | $445M |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-31 | $3.7B | 22.1% | $288M | 1.56 | $377M |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-31 | $3.9B | — | $469M | — | $568M |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 25-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | IQVIA HOLDINGS INC. |
| Chief executive | Ari Bousbib (source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261027294018/en/IQVIA-Reports-Third-Quarter-2026-Results) |
| Sector | Health Care — Life Sciences Tools & Services — runs clinical trials for medicine makers and sells health-care data and analytics |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $280.76 |
| Market value (market cap) | $44.8B — share price times shares outstanding of 164,800,000 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $17.3B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $1.4B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $2.1B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Sep 2026 (of 25 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +64.45% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -51.5% (2021-12-30 to 2025-05-23) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0001478242.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0001478242.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/IQV/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.