IQVIA Holdings Inc

IQVIA works behind the scenes for the drug industry. It runs clinical trials, supplies health data and builds software for biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Other clients include medical researchers, government agencies and payers (health insurers and others that pay for care). The company had about 93,000 employees in more than 100 countries, according to its annual report for the year ended December 31, 2025.

Research & Development Solutions is the largest segment. It brought in $8.9 billion, or 54.5% of the $16.3 billion in fiscal 2025 revenue. Drug companies pay it to design trials, pick test sites and recruit patients. Technology & Analytics Solutions made up 40.6% of revenue. It provides data, analytics, software and real-world evidence, meaning studies of how treatments perform outside trials. Contract Sales & Medical Solutions supplies sales and medical staff to drug makers and made up the remaining 4.8%.

IQVIA says its data sets it apart. It draws on about 150,000 data suppliers and more than 1.2 billion non-identified patient records (records stripped of personal identifiers). It covers about 90% of the world's pharmaceuticals, measured by 2024 sales. By region, the Americas supplied 47.5% of fiscal 2025 revenue, Europe and Africa 31.8%, and Asia-Pacific 20.7%.

• In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $4.43B, up 8% from a year earlier, and net income was $350.0M (+5.7%).
• For fiscal 2025, revenue was $16.31B (+5.9% year over year; +7.5% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 8.3% net margin.

• Over FY2021–FY2025: $5.16B in buybacks and $0.00 in dividends.
• The company pays no regular dividend.
• Shares outstanding changed -13.5% from Feb 7, 2022 to Oct 20, 2026.

Rank among 1514 US companies

Market value at each year end

IQVIA Holdings’s market value went from $18.72B at the end of 2016 to $42.59B on Nov 2, 2026, about 2.3 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 11%.

Form 4 filings from 2025-10-28 to 2026-10-28 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 9 sales ($29.9M).

Large shareholders (13G filings)

ETFs with the most weight in IQV

1. Clients can cancel, delay or underfund trials. Clients can cancel or delay trials, which cuts revenue. If a client cannot fund a trial it started, IQVIA may be ethically bound to finish the trial or wind it down at its own expense.
2. Data suppliers could cut off access. The data business relies on about 150,000 outside suppliers. If key suppliers restrict use of their data or refuse to license it, IQVIA could lose information its clients pay for.
3. Contracts priced too low can lose money. IQVIA could underprice a contract, overrun its cost estimates, or struggle to get clients to approve change orders (paid amendments when a project grows). Any of these can shrink or erase profit on the work.
4. Privacy rules and data breaches. IQVIA handles more than 1.2 billion non-identified patient records. Tighter privacy laws could limit how it uses that data. A breach of its own systems or a vendor's could cause losses and liability.
5. A heavy debt load. As of September 30, 2026, IQVIA had about $16.1 billion of debt against $2.4 billion of cash and investments. Loan terms limit its flexibility, and higher interest rates can raise borrowing costs.
6. Drug makers may cut research budgets. Demand depends on how much drug companies spend on research and how much of it they outsource. Mergers among clients, healthcare reform and competition from cheaper generic drugs can all shrink that spending.

• Oct 27, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Sep 23, 2026 Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
• Sep 9, 2026 Other company announcement
• Jul 28, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Jun 11, 2026 Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
• Jun 4, 2026 Other company announcement
• May 7, 2026 Other company announcement
• May 5, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Apr 23, 2026 Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results
• Feb 5, 2026 Quarterly results released

IQVIA pays no dividend, and its annual report for fiscal 2025 says it has no plans to pay regular cash dividends. An income investor could draw cash from this stock only by parting with shares. Instead, the company returns money through buybacks (repurchases of its own stock). It spent $5.16 billion on them from fiscal 2021 through 2025. The share count fell 13.5% between February 2022 and October 2026, so each remaining share owns a larger slice of the business.

The price has fallen sharply in downturns. In the 2020 COVID crash, the shares dropped 48.9% between February 19 and March 23, 2020, then regained their high by September 1, 2020. In the 2022 bear market, they fell 37.2% between January 3 and October 12, 2022. They did not recover until September 24, 2026, about 47 months after the low. Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds, which spread money across many companies.