Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) Short Interest Up 19.7% in February

Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,300,000 shares, an increase of 19.7% from the January 31st total of 6,100,000 shares. Approximately 8.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,110,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 6.6 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Thomas Pike sold 11,268 shares of Fortrea stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.04, for a total value 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 $2,884,018.72. The trade was a 6.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 12,386 shares of company stock valued at $219,751 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Fortrea

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Fortrea by 21.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 364,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,288,000 after buying an additional 63,766 shares in the last quarter. Starboard Value LP raised its stake in Fortrea by 5.0% during the third quarter. Starboard Value LP now owns 8,400,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,000,000 after buying an additional 400,000 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 233,577 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Fortrea by 9.0% during the third quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 495,444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,909,000 after buying an additional 40,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortrea by 20.5% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,197,696 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,954,000 after purchasing an additional 204,021 shares during the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on FTRE shares. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Fortrea from $20.00 to $15.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Fortrea from $22.00 to $11.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Baird R W downgraded Fortrea from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Robert W. Baird downgraded Fortrea from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $28.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortrea in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fortrea presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.30.

Fortrea Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ:FTRE opened at $10.68 on Friday. 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 has a one year low of $9.55 and a one year high of $41.02. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.89. The stock has a market cap of $958.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.34.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 3rd. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.18). Fortrea had a positive return on equity of 2.00% and a negative net margin of 10.99%. The business had revenue of $697.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $703.22 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Fortrea will post 0.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Fortrea

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.