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IQV, IQVIA Holdings Inc.

Life Sciences Tools & Services diversified Serial acquirer

IQVIA is a leading global provider of clinical research services, commercial insights and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries.

IQVIA's portfolio of solutions are powered by IQVIA Connected Intelligence to deliver actionable insights and services built on high-quality health data, Healthcare-grade AI , advanced analytics, the latest technologies and extensive domain expertise.

With approximately 93,000 employees in over 100 countries, including experts in healthcare, life sciences, data science, technology and operational excellence, we are dedicated to accelerating the development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments to help improve patient outcomes and population health worldwide.

Latest annual: FY2025 10-K

IQV · IQVIA Holdings Inc.

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2025

$16.3B

+5.9% YoY · 8% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $16.6B 5-yr avg $15.0B

Operating margin 13.2% 5-yr avg 12.7%

ROIC 9% 5-yr avg 9%

Owner-earnings margin 13% 5-yr avg 13%

Free cash flow margin 13% 5-yr avg 13%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: Revenue is Research and Development Solutions (55%), Technology and Analytics Solutions (41%) and Contract Sales and Medical Solutions (5%).
Situation: Serial acquirer. Goodwill and acquired intangibles are 72% of assets, with meaningful acquisition spending in 9 of the record's 10 years; much of what this business is was bought, at prices the record carries.
What moves the needle: Operating margin has run about 8.5% through the cycle, a thin margin, where volume, cost discipline and the price it gets all bear on the result. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median 5%, above 15% in 0 of 10 years). By owner earnings: roughly 11% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

Revenue spreads across 3 segments, the largest Research And Development Solutions at 55%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2025

Research And Development Solutions55%$8.9B
Technology And Analytics Solutions41%$6.6B
Contract Sales And Medical Solutions5%$788M

By geographyAmericas47%EMEA32%Asia Pacific21%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2016–2025

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2016’16	2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	TTMTTMMar 2026
											Income statement
$6.8B	$9.7B	$10.4B	$11.1B	$11.4B	$13.9B	$14.4B	$15.0B	$15.4B	$16.3B	$16.6B	RevenueRevenue
15%	17%	16%	16%	16%	14%	14%	14%	13%	12%	12%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
$576M	$665M	$741M	$777M	$731M	$1.4B	$1.8B	$2.0B	$2.2B	$2.2B	$2.2B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
8.5%	6.9%	7.1%	7.0%	6.4%	10.0%	12.5%	13.2%	14.3%	13.4%	13.2%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$72M	$1.3B	$259M	$191M	$279M	$966M	$1.1B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	Net incomeNet inc.
—	—	19%	38%	21%	14%	19%	7%	18%	16%	15%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$860M	$970M	$1.3B	$1.4B	$2.0B	$2.9B	$2.3B	$2.1B	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.7B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$289M	$1.0B	$1.1B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.1B	$1.2B	DepreciationDeprec.
$393M	($1.4B)	($259M)	($122M)	$298M	$542M	($155M)	($551M)	$23M	($97M)	($88M)	Working capital & otherWC & other
$164M	$369M	$459M	$582M	$616M	$640M	$674M	$649M	$602M	$603M	$588M	CapexCapex
2.4%	3.8%	4.4%	5.2%	5.4%	4.6%	4.7%	4.3%	3.9%	3.7%	3.5%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$696M	$601M	$795M	$835M	$1.3B	$2.3B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$2.1B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
10.2%	6.2%	7.6%	7.5%	11.8%	16.6%	11.0%	10.0%	13.7%	12.6%	12.7%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$696M	$601M	$795M	$835M	$1.3B	$2.3B	$1.6B	$1.5B	$2.1B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Free cash flowFCF
10.2%	6.2%	7.6%	7.5%	11.8%	16.6%	11.0%	10.0%	13.7%	12.6%	12.7%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0	$854M	$309M	$588M	$177M	$1.5B	$1.3B	$876M	$735M	$1.7B	$1.6B	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$1.1B	$2.6B	$1.4B	$949M	$447M	$406M	$1.2B	$992M	$1.4B	$1.2B	—	BuybacksBuybacks
2%	4%	4%	3%	3%	7%	8%	10%	10%	9%	9%	ROICROIC
1%	16%	4%	3%	5%	16%	19%	22%	23%	21%	22%	Return on equityROE
											Balance sheet
$1.2B	$1.0B	$938M	$899M	$1.9B	$1.5B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$1.8B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$1.7B	$2.1B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.9B	$3.4B	$3.2B	$3.4B	$3.3B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$250M	$322M	$437M	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	$437M	Accounts payablePayables
$1.5B	$1.8B	$2.0B	$2.6B	$2.4B	$2.6B	$2.9B	$3.4B	$3.2B	$3.4B	$2.9B	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$3.3B	$3.6B	$3.9B	$4.1B	$5.1B	$4.8B	$5.0B	$5.6B	$5.8B	$6.2B	$6.2B	Current assetsCur. assets
$2.7B	$3.2B	$3.5B	$3.9B	$4.6B	$5.2B	$5.6B	$6.5B	$7.0B	$8.3B	$8.3B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.2×	1.1×	1.1×	1.0×	1.1×	0.9×	0.9×	0.9×	0.8×	0.7×	0.7×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$10.7B	$11.8B	$11.8B	$12.2B	$12.7B	$13.3B	$13.9B	$14.6B	$14.7B	$16.6B	$16.5B	GoodwillGoodwill
$21.2B	$22.9B	$22.5B	$23.3B	$24.6B	$24.7B	$25.3B	$26.7B	$26.9B	$29.9B	$29.7B	Total assetsAssets
$7.2B	$10.2B	$11.0B	$11.6B	$12.5B	$12.1B	$12.7B	$13.7B	$14.0B	$15.7B	$15.8B	Total debtDebt
$6.0B	$9.2B	$10.1B	$10.7B	$10.6B	$10.6B	$11.4B	$12.2B	$12.1B	$13.6B	$13.7B	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
4.0×	1.9×	1.8×	1.7×	1.8×	3.7×	4.3×	2.9×	3.3×	3.0×	2.9×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$8.6B	$8.0B	$6.7B	$6.0B	$6.0B	$6.0B	$5.8B	$6.1B	$6.1B	$6.5B	$6.2B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
1.6%	1.1%	1.1%	1.3%	0.8%	1.2%	1.3%	1.4%	1.3%	1.5%	1.4%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
152M	223M	208M	200M	195M	195M	191M	186M	183M	174M	170M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$44.84	$43.58	$50.01	$55.55	$58.25	$71.15	$75.60	$80.43	$84.00	$94.01	$97.95	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$0.47	$5.74	$1.24	$0.96	$1.43	$4.95	$5.72	$7.29	$7.49	$7.84	$8.16	EPS (diluted)EPS
$4.58	$2.70	$3.82	$4.18	$6.89	$11.81	$8.32	$8.05	$11.53	$11.82	$12.46	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$4.58	$2.70	$3.82	$4.18	$6.89	$11.81	$8.32	$8.05	$11.53	$11.82	$12.46	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$1.08	$1.66	$2.20	$2.92	$3.16	$3.28	$3.54	$3.48	$3.28	$3.48	$3.46	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$56.80	$35.92	$32.25	$30.08	$30.77	$30.98	$30.25	$32.81	$33.08	$37.48	$36.64	Book value / shareBVPS

The diluted share count moved ×1.46 into 2017 — shares issued, not a split the totals corroborate — and the per-share figures carry the counts as filed.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+8.6%/yr	+10.0%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+11.1%/yr	+11.4%/yr
EPS	+36.6%/yr	+40.5%/yr
Capital spending / share	+13.9%/yr	+1.9%/yr
Book value / share	−4.5%/yr	+4.0%/yr

The record, charted

FY2016–2025

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

174Mpeak FY2017

ROIC

9%low FY2016

Net debt ÷ owner earnings

6.6×peak FY2017

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$2.1Bowner earningsvs.$1.4Bnet incomelow FY2017

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2016FY2025

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2021–FY2025cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2025 the business turned $1.4B of profit into $2.1B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$1.4B

Owner earnings$2.1B · 13% of revenue

	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022	FY2021
Reported net income	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.4B	$1.1B	$966M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$1.1B	+$1.1B	+$1.1B	+$1.1B	+$1.3B
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$247M	+$206M	+$217M	+$194M	+$170M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	−$97M	+$23M	−$551M	−$155M	+$542M
Cash from operations	$2.7B	$2.7B	$2.1B	$2.3B	$2.9B
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow	−$603M	−$602M	−$649M	−$674M	−$640M
Owner earnings	$2.1B	$2.1B	$1.5B	$1.6B	$2.3B
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	13%	14%	10%	11%	17%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $247M), owner earnings is nearer $1.8B.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2025 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 3.0×

Adequate

Operating income $2.2B ÷ interest expense $729M

What this means
Comfortable in a normal year, but below the margin of safety Graham looked for. Worth checking how stable the coverage has been across a full cycle.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? $13.6B · 6.2× operating profit

Heavy net debt

Cash $2.0B + ST investments $161M − debt $15.7B

What this means
Netting $2.1B of cash and short-term investments against $15.7B of debt leaves $13.6B owed, about 6.2× a year's operating profit (7.2× on the gross debt, before the cash). It also holds $35M in longer-dated marketable securities; counting those, it sits at $13.5B of net debt. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? —

Not enough data

What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 4%

Below average through the cycle

10-yr median, range 2%–10%; 9% latest = NOPAT $1.8B ÷ invested capital $20.2B

Industry peers: median 15%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 10 years (it ran 9% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 10%

Solid through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 6%–17%; latest $2.1B = operating cash $2.7B − maintenance capex $603M

Industry peers: median 9%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 13% of revenue this year, a 10% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $247M of SBC) leaves $1.8B.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.95×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $2.7B ÷ net income $1.4B

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 88%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $1.8B ÷ Owner Earnings $2.1B

What this means
Of $2.1B Owner Earnings, $1.8B (88%) went back to shareholders, $568M dividends, $1.2B buybacks. Net of $247M stock comp, the real buyback was about $997M. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 0.53×

Harvesting

Capex $603M ÷ depreciation $1.1B

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 3 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $16.3B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.75×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Miss

Debt ≤ working capital · $15.7B vs ($2.1B) WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Pass

A profit every year (10-yr record) · no losses

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Miss

Uninterrupted dividends · none paid

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +154%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $8.17/share (latest year $8.15), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $38.96/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2016–2025

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 10 of 10

What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 10 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin 7% → 14% (3-yr avg ends)

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 7% early to 14% lately, median 8% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital

What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
Owner earnings growth +14%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 14% a year over the record.
Worst year 2020 · 6.4% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count +1.5%/yr

What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Moderate contestability

AI is likely to reshape costs and some products here without clearly contesting or sparing the core moat; how the company itself frames it is the tell.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2025 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“If our investments in AI enabled services and offerings do not keep pace with rapid innovation by competitors or technology providers, or if alternative AI solutions evolve more quickly or are more cost effective than our offerings, certain of our existing services or platforms could become less competitive or economic…”

The question is whether a moat the record shows as durable outlasts a technology that lowers the cost of part of what the firm sells. The durability is read in the record above, the filing's own framing of AI beside it; the industry label decides nothing on its own.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Mar 31, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$6.2B

Cash & short-term investments$2.1B
Receivables$3.3B
Other current assets$771M

Current liabilities$8.3B

Debt due within a year$1.8B
Accounts payable$437M
Other current liabilities$6.0B

Current ratio0.75×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio0.75×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.25×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital($2.1B)the cushion left after near-term bills

Debt due this year vs. cash$1.8B due · $2.1B cash covered by cash on hand, no refinancing forced · both figures from the Mar 31, 2026 balance sheet

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+8.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters0.8× → 0.7×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($15.1B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($17.1B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$16.2B$325M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$2.3Bcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'26$1.8B

'27$1.8B

'28$2.6B

'29$2.5B

'30$3.3B

later$3.9B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2030, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$1.8Bthe first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$3.6Bthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$3.3Bin 2030the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$15.8Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Against what the business has and earns

Cash & short-term investments, Mar 31, 2026$2.1B

One year of owner earnings (FY2025)$2.1B

Together, against $1.8B due next year2.3×

Cash on hand as of Mar 31, 2026 plus a year’s owner earnings comes to $4.2B against the $1.8B due in the twelve months after the Dec 31, 2025 schedule: 2.3 times it.

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Dec 31, 2025 annual report and reconciled to the balance-sheet debt.

How the cash was used, 2016–2025

Over the record, the business generated $19.2B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$5.4B · 28%
Buybacks$11.7B · 61%
Retained (debt / cash)$2.1B · 11%

Returned to owners$11.7B
84% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $11.7B as buybacks.
Source of fundingOperating cash
Operating cash covered reinvestment and returns; over the span debt rose $8.6B and cash and short-term investments rose $865M.
Average price paid for buybacks—
Buybacks ran $11.7B over the span, but the filings don't tag the share count needed to deduce the average price paid.
Net change in share count11.7%
The diluted count rose from 152M to 170M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
Dividend record—
No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$21.6B72% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth

Cash spent acquiring$9.9Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $5.4B of capital spent building

$68M written down across 2 years (2016, 2017): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	Ari Bousbib	$28.6M	$88.4M	$2.3B
2022	Ari Bousbib	$30.1M	$6.0M	$1.6B
2023	Ari Bousbib	$29.2M	$42.3M	$1.5B
2024	Ari Bousbib	$26.7M	$11.5M	$2.1B
2025	Ari Bousbib	$28.1M	$36.1M	$2.1B

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership1.7%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$247M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 2% of revenue, equal to 11% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why IQVIA Holdings Inc. is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2016–2025.

1 of the 6 tests turned up something to look into; the other 5 came back clean.

Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?11.7%
Diluted shares grew 11.7% over 2016–2025, even as the company spent $11.7B on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did reported profit become cash?
Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
Are "one-time" charges a yearly habit?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2025

read the 10-K →

Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
Management names Revenue recognition, Pension & retirement, Income taxes, Acquisitions as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Life Sciences Tools & Services

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
IQVIQVIA Holdings Inc.	$16.3B	—	9.2%	5%	11%
ACMAECOM	$16.1B	6%	3.6%	9%	4%
GGenpact	$5.1B	36%	12.4%	15%	11%
VVXV2X Inc.	$4.5B	9%	3.6%	11%	3%
FCNFTI Consulting	$3.8B	32%	10.5%	16%	9%
ULSUL Solutions Inc.	$3.1B	48%	16.2%	27%	10%
MEDPMedpace Holdings	$2.5B	—	17.6%	27%	22%
EVHEvolent Health	$1.9B	23%	-12.2%	-6%	-11%
Group median	—	—	9.9%	13%	9%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what IQVIA Holdings Inc. has delivered.

IQVIA Holdings Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, IQVIA Holdings Inc. earns about $1.7B on its 10.6% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 12.6% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($1.7B) Net of stock comp (−$240M)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+2%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’16→’25+14%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $2.1B on 167M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-04-30; net debt $13.7B. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh IQV against another business →

The owners of IQV: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "IQVIA Holdings Inc. (IQV), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/IQV, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← IPSC its page in the Manual IR →

Industry order: ← INCY the Life Sciences Tools & Services chapter LAB →