IQVIA (IQV) 10-Q2023 Q1 Quarterly report

IQVIA Holdings Inc. (together with its subsidiaries, the “Company” or “IQVIA”) is a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions and clinical research services to the life sciences industry. With approximately 87,000 employees, the Company conducts business in more than 100 countries.

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of the Company have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America (“GAAP”) for interim financial information. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and notes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring adjustments) considered necessary for a fair statement of the Company’s financial condition and results of operations have been included. Operating results for the periods presented are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2023. As such, the information included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. The balance sheet as of December 31, 2022 has been derived from the audited consolidated financial statements of the Company, but does not include all the disclosures required by GAAP.

As of March 31, 2023, approximately $31.4 billion of revenues are expected to be recognized in the future from remaining performance obligations. The Company expects to recognize revenues on approximately 30% of these remaining performance obligations over the next twelve months, on approximately 80% over the next five years, with the balance recognized thereafter. Most of the Company's remaining performance obligations where revenues are expected to be recognized beyond the next twelve months are for service contracts for clinical research in the Company's Research & Development Solutions segment. The customer contract transaction price allocated to the remaining performance obligations differs from backlog in that it does not include wholly unperformed contracts under which the customer has a unilateral right to cancel the arrangement.

The majority of the unearned income balance as of the beginning of the year is expected to be recognized in revenues during the year ended December 31, 2023.

The Company has accounts receivable factoring agreements to sell certain eligible unsecured trade accounts receivable, either based on automatic arrangements or at its option, without recourse, to unrelated third-party financial institutions for cash. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, through its accounts receivable factoring arrangements that the Company utilizes most frequently, the Company factored approximately $181 million of trade accounts receivable on a non-recourse basis and received approximately $174 million in cash proceeds from the sales. The fees associated with these transactions were immaterial. The Company has other accounts receivable arrangements for which the activity associated with them is immaterial.

The following is a summary of goodwill by reportable segment for the three months ended March 31, 2023:

The fair values of the Company’s derivative instruments and the line items on the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets to which they were recorded are summarized in the following table:

The Company expects $35 million of pre-tax unrealized gains related to its foreign exchange contracts and interest rate derivatives included in accumulated other comprehensive (loss) income (“AOCI”) as of March 31, 2023 to be reclassified into earnings within the next twelve months. As of March 31, 2023, the Company's foreign currency denominated debt balance (net of original issue discount) designated as a hedge of its net investment in certain foreign subsidiaries totaled €5,207 million ($5,664 million). The amount of foreign exchange (losses) gains related to the net investment hedge included in the cumulative translation adjustment component of AOCI for the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022 was $(89) million and $119 million, respectively.

The Company records certain assets and liabilities at fair value. Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in the principal or most advantageous market for the asset or liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. A three-level fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs used to measure fair value is described below. This hierarchy requires entities to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs. The three levels of inputs used to measure fair value are as follows:

The carrying values of cash, cash equivalents, accounts receivable and accounts payable approximated their fair values as of March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022 due to their short-term nature. As of March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, the fair value of total debt was $12,793 million and $12,281 million, respectively, as determined under Level 2 measurements for these financial instruments.

The following table summarizes the fair value of the Company’s financial assets and liabilities that are measured and reported at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2022:

Below is a summary of the valuation techniques used in determining fair value:

As of March 31, 2023, assets carried on the balance sheet and not remeasured to fair value on a recurring basis totaled $18,946 million and were identified as Level 3. These assets are comprised of debt investments and cost and equity method investments of $174 million, goodwill of $14,015 million and other identifiable intangibles, net of $4,757 million.

As of March 31, 2023, the Company’s Fifth Amended and Restated Credit Agreement provided financing through several senior secured credit facilities of up to $7,632 million, which consisted of $6,932 million principal amounts of debt outstanding (as detailed in the table above), and $695 million of available borrowing capacity on the $1,500 million revolving credit facility and standby letters of credit. The revolving credit facility is comprised of a $675 million senior secured revolving facility available in U.S. dollars, a $600 million senior secured revolving facility available in U.S. dollars, Euros, Swiss Francs and other foreign currencies, and a $225 million senior secured revolving facility available in U.S. dollars and Yen.

On April 17, 2023, the Company increased the capacity of its senior secured revolving credit facility by $500 million U.S. dollars, bringing the total capacity of the revolving credit facility to $2,000 million. At the same time, the Company also amended the benchmark rate of the U.S. dollar revolving credit facility and the U.S. dollar Term A Loans from U.S. dollar LIBOR to U.S. dollar SOFR plus a 10 basis point Credit Spread Adjustment.

The Company’s debt agreements provide for certain covenants and events of default customary for similar instruments, including a covenant not to exceed a specified ratio of consolidated senior secured net indebtedness to Consolidated EBITDA, as defined in the senior secured credit facility agreement and a covenant to maintain a specified minimum interest coverage ratio. If an event of default occurs under any of the Company’s or the Company’s subsidiaries’ financing arrangements, the creditors under such financing arrangements will be entitled to take various actions, including the acceleration of amounts due under such arrangements, and in the case of the lenders under the revolving credit facility and term loans, other actions permitted to be taken by a secured creditor. The Company’s long-term debt arrangements contain other usual and customary restrictive covenants that, among other things, place limitations on the Company’s ability to declare dividends. As of March 31, 2023, the Company was in compliance in all material respects with the financial covenants under the Company’s financing arrangements.

The Company and its subsidiaries are involved in legal and tax proceedings, claims and litigation arising in the ordinary course of business. Management periodically assesses the Company’s liabilities and contingencies in connection with these matters based upon the latest information available. For those matters where management currently believes it is probable that the Company will incur a loss and that the probable loss or range of loss can be reasonably estimated, the Company has recorded an accrual in the consolidated financial statements based on its best estimates of such loss. In other instances, because of the uncertainties related to either the probable outcome or the amount or range of loss, management is unable to make a reasonable estimate of a liability, if any.

However, even in many instances where the Company has recorded an estimated liability, the Company is unable to predict with certainty the final outcome of the matter or whether resolution of the matter will materially affect the Company’s results of operations, financial position or cash flows. As additional information becomes available, the Company adjusts its assessments and estimates of such liabilities accordingly.

The Company routinely enters into agreements with third parties, including its clients and suppliers, all in the normal course of business. In these agreements, the Company sometimes agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the other party for any damages such other party may suffer as a result of potential intellectual property infringement and other claims. The Company has not accrued a liability with respect to these matters generally, as the exposure is considered remote.

Based on its review of the latest information available, management does not expect the impact of pending legal and tax proceedings, claims and litigation, either individually or in the aggregate, to have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations, cash flows or financial position. However, one or more unfavorable outcomes in any claim or litigation against the Company could have a material adverse effect for the period in which it is resolved. The following is a summary of certain legal matters involving the Company.

On February 13, 2014, a group of approximately 1,200 medical doctors and 900 private individuals filed a civil lawsuit with the Seoul Central District Court against IMS Korea and two other defendants, the Korean Pharmaceutical Association (“KPA”) and the Korean Pharmaceutical Information Center (“KPIC”). The civil lawsuit alleges KPA and KPIC collected their personal information in violation of applicable privacy laws without the necessary consent through a software system installed on pharmacy computer systems in Korea, and that personal information was transferred to IMS Korea and sold to pharmaceutical companies. On September 11, 2017, the District Court issued a final decision that the encryption in use by the defendants since June 2014 was adequate to meet the requirements of the Korean Personal Information Privacy Act (“PIPA”) and the sharing of non-identified information for market research purposes was allowed under PIPA. The District Court also found an earlier version of encryption was insufficient to meet PIPA requirements, but no personal data had been leaked or re-identified. The District Court did not award any damages to plaintiffs. Approximately 280 medical doctors and 200 private individuals appealed the District Court decision. On May 3, 2019, the Appellate Court issued a final decision in which it concluded all of the non-identified information transferred by KPIC to IMS Korea for market research purposes violated PIPA, but did not award any damages to plaintiffs (affirming the District Court’s decision on this latter point). On May 24, 2019, approximately 247 plaintiffs appealed the Appellate Court’s decision to the Supreme Court. The Company believes the appeal is without merit and is vigorously defending its position.

On July 23, 2015, indictments were issued by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in South Korea against 24 individuals and companies alleging improper handling of sensitive health information in violation of, among others, South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Act. IMS Korea and two of its employees were among the individuals and organizations indicted. Although there is no assertion that IMS Korea used patient identified health information in any of its offerings, prosecutors allege that certain of IMS Korea’s data suppliers should have obtained patient consent when they converted sensitive patient information into non-identified data and that IMS Korea had not taken adequate precautions to reduce the risk of re-identification. On February 14, 2020, the Seoul Central District Court acquitted IMS Korea and its two employees of the charges of improper handling of sensitive health information, and the Prosecutor's Office appealed. On December 23, 2021, the appellate court affirmed the judgment of the Seoul Central District Court. The Prosecutor's Office has appealed to the Supreme Court. The Company intends to vigorously defend its position on appeal.

On January 10, 2017, Quintiles IMS Health Incorporated and IMS Software Services Ltd. (collectively “IQVIA Parties”), filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey against Veeva Systems, Inc. (“Veeva”) alleging Veeva unlawfully used IQVIA Parties intellectual property to improve Veeva data offerings, to promote and market Veeva data offerings and to improve Veeva technology offerings. IQVIA Parties seek injunctive relief, appointment of a monitor, the award of compensatory and punitive damages and reimbursement of all litigation expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs. On March 13, 2017, Veeva filed counterclaims alleging anticompetitive business practices in violation of the Sherman Act and state laws. Veeva claims damages in excess of $200 million, and is seeking punitive damages and litigation costs, including attorneys’ fees. We believe the counterclaims are without merit, reject all counterclaims raised by Veeva and intend to vigorously defend IQVIA Parties’ position and pursue our claims against Veeva. Since the initial filings, the parties have filed additional litigations against each other, primarily concerning the use of IQVIA data with various other Veeva products. The parties are engaged in the discovery process in connection with these lawsuits.

On May 7, 2021, the Court issued an order and opinion (the “Order”) in which it found significant evidence that Veeva had (1) misappropriated IQVIA data and unlawfully used it to improve Veeva data offerings, (2) engaged in a cover-up by deleting significant evidence of its theft of IQVIA’s trade secrets, and (3) improperly withheld certain evidence in furtherance of a crime and/or fraud against IQVIA. The Court imposed five sanctions against Veeva, including ordering three separate adverse inference instructions be issued to the jury and that IQVIA be permitted to present evidence to the jury of Veeva’s destruction efforts. Veeva is currently appealing the Order.

The Company is authorized to issue 1.0 million shares of preferred stock, $0.01 per share par value. No shares of preferred stock were issued or outstanding as of March 31, 2023 or December 31, 2022.

As of March 31, 2023, the total stock repurchase authorization under the Company's equity repurchase program (the “Repurchase Program”) was $9,725 million. The Repurchase Program does not obligate the Company to repurchase any particular amount of common stock, and it may be modified, extended, suspended or discontinued at any time. During the three months ended March 31, 2023, the Company repurchased 0.7 million shares of its common stock for $129 million under the Repurchase Program. As of March 31, 2023, the Company has remaining authorization to repurchase up to $1,226 million of its common stock under the Repurchase Program. In addition, from time to time, the Company has repurchased and may continue to repurchase common stock through private or other transactions outside of the Repurchase Program.

The Company has continued to take restructuring actions in 2023 to align its resources and reduce overcapacity to adapt to changing market conditions and integrate acquisitions. These actions include consolidating functional activities, eliminating redundant positions, and aligning resources with customer requirements. These restructuring actions are expected to continue into 2024.

The reversals were due to changes in estimates primarily resulting from the redeployment of staff and higher than expected voluntary terminations. Restructuring costs are not allocated to the Company’s reportable segments as they are not part of the segment performance measures regularly reviewed by management. The Company expects that the majority of the restructuring accruals as of March 31, 2023 will be paid in 2023 and 2024.

The Company's effective income tax rate was 19.6% and 17.8% in the first quarter of 2023 and 2022, respectively. The effective income tax rate in the first quarter of 2023 and 2022 was favorably impacted by $8 million and $13 million, respectively, as a result of excess tax benefits recognized upon settlement of share-based compensation awards.

The following table presents the Company’s operations by reportable segment. The Company is managed through three reportable segments, Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. Technology & Analytics Solutions provides mission critical information, technology solutions and real world insights and services to the Company's life science clients. Research & Development Solutions, which primarily serves biopharmaceutical customers, provides outsourced clinical research and clinical trial related services. Contract Sales & Medical Solutions provides health care provider (including contract sales) and patient engagement services to both biopharmaceutical clients and the broader healthcare market.

Certain costs are not allocated to our segments and are reported as general corporate and unallocated expenses. These costs primarily consist of stock-based compensation and expenses related to integration activities and acquisitions. The Company also does not allocate depreciation and amortization or impairment charges to its segments. Asset information by segment is not presented, as this measure is not used by the chief operating decision maker to assess the Company’s performance. The Company’s reportable segment information is presented below:

The following table reconciles the basic to diluted weighted average shares outstanding:

Stock-based awards will have a dilutive effect under the treasury method when the respective period's average market value of the Company's common stock exceeds the exercise proceeds. Performance awards are included in diluted earnings per share based on if the performance targets have been met at the end of the reporting period.

For the three months ended March 31, 2023 and 2022, the weighted average number of outstanding stock-based awards not included in the computation of diluted earnings per share because they are subject to performance conditions that have not been met at the end of the reporting period or the effect of including such stock-based awards in the computation would be anti-dilutive was 1.0 and 0.3 million, respectively.

We caution you that any such forward-looking statements are further qualified by important factors that could cause our actual operating results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, including without limitation, business disruptions caused by natural disasters, pandemics such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak, including any variants, and the public health policy responses to the outbreak, and international conflicts or other disruptions outside of our control such as the current situation in Ukraine and Russia; our ability to accurately model or forecast the impact of the spread and/or containment of COVID-19, including any variants, among other sources of business interruption, on our operations and financial results; most of our contracts may be terminated on short notice, and we may lose or experience delays with large client contracts or be unable to enter into new contracts; the market for our services may not grow as we expect; we may be unable to successfully develop and market new services or enter new markets; imposition of restrictions on our use of data by data suppliers or their refusal to license data to us; any failure by us to comply with contractual, regulatory or ethical requirements under our contracts, including current or future changes to data protection and privacy laws; breaches or misuse of our or our outsourcing partners’ security or communications systems; failure to meet our productivity or business transformation objectives; failure to successfully invest in growth opportunities; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights and our susceptibility to claims by others that we are infringing on their intellectual property rights; the expiration or inability to acquire third party licenses for technology or intellectual property; any failure by us to accurately and timely price and formulate cost estimates for contracts, or to document change orders; hardware and software failures, delays in the operation of our computer and communications systems or the failure to implement system enhancements; the rate at which our backlog converts to revenues; our ability to acquire, develop and implement technology necessary for our business; consolidation in the industries in which our clients operate; risks related to client or therapeutic concentration; government regulators or our customers may limit the number or scope of indications for medicines and treatments or withdraw products from the market, and government regulators may impose new regulatory requirements or may adopt new regulations affecting the biopharmaceutical industry; the risks associated with operating on a global basis, including currency or exchange rate fluctuations and legal compliance, including anti-corruption laws; risks related to changes in accounting standards; general economic conditions in the markets in which we operate, including financial market conditions, inflation and risks related to sales to government entities; the impact of changes in tax laws and regulations; and our ability to successfully integrate, and achieve expected benefits from, our acquired businesses. For a further discussion of the risks relating to our business, see Part I—Item 1A—“Risk Factors” in our 2022 Form 10-K, as updated in our subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

IQVIA is a leading global provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions and clinical research services to the life sciences industry. IQVIA creates intelligent connections across all aspects of healthcare through its analytics, transformative technology, big data resources and extensive domain expertise. IQVIA Connected Intelligence™ delivers powerful insights with speed and agility — enabling customers to accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of innovative medical treatments that improve healthcare outcomes for patients. With approximately 87,000 employees, we conduct operations in more than 100 countries.

We are a global leader in protecting individual patient privacy. We use a wide variety of privacy-enhancing technologies and safeguards to protect individual privacy while generating and analyzing information on a scale that helps healthcare stakeholders identify disease patterns and correlate with the precise treatment path and therapy needed for better outcomes. Our insights and execution capabilities help biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers, government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders tap into a deeper understanding of diseases, human behaviors and scientific advances, in an effort to advance their path toward cures.

We are managed through three reportable segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. Technology & Analytics Solutions provides mission critical information, technology solutions and real world insights and services to our life science clients. Research & Development Solutions, which primarily serves biopharmaceutical customers, provides outsourced clinical research and clinical trial related services. Contract Sales & Medical Solutions provides health care provider (including contract sales) and patient engagement services to both biopharmaceutical clients and the broader healthcare market.

Total revenues are comprised of revenues from the provision of our services. We do not have any material product revenues.

Our costs and expenses are comprised primarily of our cost of revenues including reimbursed expenses and selling, general and administrative expenses. Cost of revenues includes compensation and benefits for billable employees and personnel involved in production, trial monitoring, data management and delivery, and the costs of acquiring and processing data for our information offerings; costs of staff directly involved with delivering technology-related services offerings and engagements, related accommodations and the costs of data purchased specifically for technology services engagements; and other expenses directly related to service contracts such as courier fees, laboratory supplies, professional services and travel expenses. Reimbursed expenses, which are included in cost of revenues, are comprised principally of payments to investigators who oversee clinical trials and travel expenses for our clinical monitors and sales representatives. Selling, general and administrative expenses include costs related to sales, marketing and administrative functions (including human resources, legal, finance, quality assurance, compliance and general management) for compensation and benefits, travel, professional services, training and expenses for information technology and facilities. We also incur costs and expenses associated with depreciation and amortization.

In the first three months of 2023, approximately 30% of our revenues were denominated in currencies other than the United States dollar, which represents approximately 60 currencies. Because a large portion of our revenues and expenses are denominated in foreign currencies and our financial statements are reported in United States dollars, changes in foreign currency exchange rates can significantly affect our results of operations. The revenues and expenses of our foreign operations are generally denominated in local currencies and translated into United States dollars for financial reporting purposes. Accordingly, exchange rate fluctuations will affect the translation of foreign results into United States dollars for purposes of reporting our condensed consolidated results. As a result, we believe that reporting results of operations that exclude the effects of foreign currency rate fluctuations on certain financial results can facilitate analysis of period to period comparisons. This constant currency information assumes the same foreign currency exchange rates that were in effect for the comparable prior-year period were used in translation of the current period results. As such, the differences noted below between reported results of operations and constant currency information is wholly attributable to the effects of foreign currency rate fluctuations.

For information regarding our results of operations for Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions, refer to “Segment Results of Operations” later in this section.

For the first quarter of 2023, our revenues increased $84 million, or 2.4%, as compared to the same period in 2022. This increase was comprised of constant currency revenue growth of approximately $166 million, or 4.7%, reflecting a $42 million increase in Technology & Analytics Solutions, a $126 million increase in Research & Development Solutions, and a $2 million decrease in Contract Sales & Medical Solutions.

The $75 million increase in cost of revenues, exclusive of depreciation and amortization, for the three months ended March 31, 2023 as compared to the same period in 2022 included a constant currency increase of approximately $185 million, or 8.0%, reflecting a $52 million increase in Technology & Analytics Solutions, a $136 million increase in Research & Development Solutions, and a $3 million decrease in Contract Sales & Medical Solutions.

The $25 million increase in selling, general and administrative expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2023 as compared to the same period in 2022 included a constant currency increase of approximately $48 million, or 9.8%, reflecting a $19 million increase in Technology & Analytics Solutions, a $7 million increase in Research & Development Solutions, a $1 million decrease in Contract Sales & Medical Solutions, and a $23 million increase in general corporate and unallocated expenses.

Depreciation and amortization was relatively consistent for the three months ended March 31, 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

The restructuring costs incurred during 2023 and 2022 were due to ongoing efforts to streamline our global operations and reduce overcapacity to adapt to changing market conditions and integrate acquisitions. The remaining actions under these plans are expected to occur throughout 2023 and into 2024 and are expected to consist of consolidating functional activities, eliminating redundant positions and aligning resources with customer requirements.

Interest income includes interest received primarily from bank balances and investments. The increase for the three months ended March 31, 2023 as compared to the same period in 2022 is primarily a result of higher deposit rates.

Interest expense during the three months ended March 31, 2023 was higher than the same period in 2022 due primarily to higher base rate interest costs across the floating rate debt portfolio as well as from an increase in our net debt.

Other (income) expense, net for the three months ended March 31, 2023 increased as compared to the same period in 2022 primarily due to foreign currency gain and gains on investments.

Our effective income tax rate was 19.6% and 17.8% in the first quarter of 2023 and 2022, respectively. Our effective income tax rate in the first quarter of 2023 and 2022 was favorably impacted by $8 million and $13 million, respectively, as a result of excess tax benefits recognized upon settlement of share-based compensation awards.

Revenues and profit by segment are as follows: