Sifting through countless of stocks in the Life Sciences Tools & Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc.

IQVIA Holdings Inc. provides clinical research services, commercial insights, and healthcare intelligence to the life sciences and healthcare industries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and associated implementation services; real world solutions that enable life sciences and provider customers to generate and disseminate evidence, which informs health care decision making and improves patients’ outcomes; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services. This segment also provides country level performance metrics related to sales of pharmaceutical products, prescribing trends, medical treatment, and promotional activity across various channels, including retail, hospital, and mail order; and measurement of sales or prescribing activity at the regional, zip code, and individual prescriber level. The Research & Development Solutions segment offers project management and clinical monitoring; clinical trial support; strategic planning and design services; and patient and site centric solutions, as well as central laboratory, genomic, bioanalytical, ADME, discovery, vaccine and biomarker laboratory services. The Contract Sales & Medical Solutions segment provides health care provider and patient engagement services, and scientific strategy and medical services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device and diagnostic, and consumer health companies. The company has a strategic collaboration with Kexing Biopharm Co., Ltd. for biosimilar development. The company was formerly known as Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to IQVIA Holdings Inc. in November 2017. IQVIA Holdings Inc. is based in Durham, North Carolina.

Medpace Holdings, Inc. provides clinical research-based drug and medical device development services in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, and Australia. The company offers a suite of services supporting the clinical development process from Phase I to Phase IV in various therapeutic areas. It provides clinical development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries; and development plan design, coordinated central laboratory, project management, regulatory affairs, clinical monitoring, data management and analysis, pharmacovigilance new drug application submissions, and post-marketing clinical support services. In addition, the company offers bio-analytical laboratory services, clinical human pharmacology, imaging services, and electrocardiography reading support for clinical trials. Medpace Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Latest Life Sciences Tools & Services and IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings, Inc. Stock News

As of July 30, 2026, IQVIA Holdings Inc. had a $39.1 billion market capitalization, compared to the Life Sciences Tools & Services median of $1.8 million. IQVIA Holdings Inc.’s stock is up 3.5% in 2026, up 12.2% in the previous five trading days and up 22.23% in the past year.

Currently, IQVIA Holdings Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 29.4. IQVIA Holdings Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $17.0 billion with a 8.1% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 8.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $12.959 per share for the current fiscal year. IQVIA Holdings Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

As of July 30, 2026, Medpace Holdings, Inc. had a $16.1 billion market cap, putting it in the 84th percentile of all stocks. Medpace Holdings, Inc.’s stock is up 1.7% in 2026, down 5% in the previous five trading days and up 29.11% in the past year.

Currently, Medpace Holdings, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 33.9. Medpace Holdings, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $2.8 billion with a 17.7% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 17.2%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $17.705 per share for the current fiscal year. Medpace Holdings, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
IQVIA Holdings Inc.	IQV	D
Medpace Holdings, Inc.	MEDP	F

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

IQVIA Holdings Inc. has a Value Score of 38, which is Expensive. Medpace Holdings, Inc. has a Value Score of 17, which is Ultra Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
IQVIA Holdings Inc.	IQV	B
Medpace Holdings, Inc.	MEDP	B

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

IQVIA Holdings Inc. has a Quality Score of 63, which is Strong. Medpace Holdings, Inc. has a Quality Score of 79, which is Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Quality Grade breakdown above, both IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc. have a grade of B. For investors who focus solely on a company’s overall quality, you will need to conduct further research into both companies to see if they are a good fit for your portfolio. As a good rule of thumb, you should always analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before choosing a company to invest in.

IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
IQVIA Holdings Inc.	IQV	B
Medpace Holdings, Inc.	MEDP	B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

IQVIA Holdings Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 71, which is Positive. Medpace Holdings, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 63, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, both IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc. have a grade of B. For those focusing solely on a company’s estimate revisions, other financial metrics will need to be evaluated to determine whether IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings or Inc. is a better fit.

Other IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc. Grades

In addition to Value, Quality and Estimate Revisions, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Momentum.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings or Inc. Stock?

Overall, IQVIA Holdings Inc. stock has a Value Score of 38, Estimate Revisions Score of 71 and Quality Score of 63.

Medpace Holdings, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 17, Estimate Revisions Score of 63 and Quality Score of 79.

Comparing IQVIA Holdings Inc., Medpace Holdings and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.