HispanicBusiness

Durham-based Quintiles announced that it will offer its common stock for purchase by the public at a price of $40 on Thursday, when its stock starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company's major business is in the management of clinical trials and associated laboratory and analysis work for pharmaceutical companies. It also provides contract drug sales, among other services.

This isn't Quintiles' first public rodeo. The company went public in 1994. In 2003, founder and former CEO Dennis Gillings led a company buy-back along with private equity investors to take it private again.

Based on reported revenues, the company said it's 1.7 times the size of its closest contract research organization competitor and is the market leader in the United States, Japan and Europe.

Last year, the company's service revenues were up about 12 percent to $3.7 billion.

A report released by an analyst who follows Durham-based Quintiles for the investment research firm Morningstar called Quintiles a "hot IPO."

The report by Lauren Migliore, a senior equity analyst for Morningstar, said Quintiles is going public at a "ripe time."

The firm said that it believes the company's stock is worth $46 per share, above the company's initial proposed offering price range of between $36 and $40 per share.

The report said Quintiles has unparalleled size and exposure that gives it a strong competitive advantage in the contract research organization industry.