Short Interest in Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) Rises By 8.3%

Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,720,000 shares, an increase of 8.3% from the December 15th total of 5,280,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,210,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.7 days. Approximately 6.4% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Transactions at Fortrea

In other news, CEO Thomas Pike sold 11,268 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.04, for a total transaction of $203,274.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 159,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,884,018.72. This represents a 6.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortrea

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FTRE. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Fortrea by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 364,413 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,288,000 after buying an additional 63,766 shares during the last quarter. Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. boosted its holdings in Fortrea by 86.4% in the third quarter. Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. now owns 1,097,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,944,000 after acquiring an additional 508,664 shares in the last quarter. Starboard Value LP grew its stake in shares of Fortrea by 5.0% in the third quarter. Starboard Value LP now owns 8,400,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,000,000 after acquiring an additional 400,000 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Fortrea by 7.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,250,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,014,000 after acquiring an additional 233,577 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Fortrea by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 495,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,909,000 after purchasing an additional 40,748 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Fortrea from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $25.00 to $21.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Baird R W lowered shares of Fortrea from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Fortrea from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays increased their price objective on Fortrea from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered Fortrea from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Fortrea presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.30.

Fortrea Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ FTRE traded down $0.12 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $17.69. 497,588 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 850,892. The company has a market cap of $1.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.17, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $19.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $21.17. Fortrea has a 52 week low of $16.53 and a 52 week high of $41.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.02). Fortrea had a positive return on equity of 2.00% and a negative net margin of 10.99%. The business had revenue of $674.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $674.86 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.24 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Fortrea will post 0.51 EPS for the current year.

Fortrea Company Profile

Fortrea Holdings Inc, a contract research organization, primarily engages in the provision of biopharmaceutical product and medical device development services worldwide. The company operates through two segments: Clinical Services and Enabling Services. The Clinical Services segment provides across the clinical pharmacology and clinical development spectrum.