Icon, the Irish company floated on the Nasdaq market in May at $18 a share, is expected to remain on an upward track, producing "powerful growth" from outsourcing clinical trials, analysts say.

NCB Stockbrokers says Icon's first results as a publicly-quoted company provide compelling evidence that it is continuing to grow rapidly. Analyst Shane Nolan believes the outlook for the firm remains "very positive", supported by a large contract backlog and has set an end-1999 price target of $38 for the share. Icon's backlog the unearned value of contracts signed by the company which is considered a valuable indicator of future growth totalled $82 million compared with $54 million in the previous quarter. This was well ahead of expectations and more than 2.6 times the size of the backlog in place at the end of May 1997. The backlog was boosted in particular by the signing just before the year-end of a $30 million contract with a client for a 5-7 year research study on a cardiovascular product.

Davy too is a fan of the stock, believing the revenue backlog points to bouyant future growth, sustainable over the medium term.