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

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Baird R W downgraded Fortrea from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Fortrea from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Fortrea from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $28.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Fortrea from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortrea in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fortrea presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.30.

Insider Activity

In other Fortrea news, CEO Thomas Pike sold 11,268 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.04, for a total value of $203,274.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,868 shares in the company, valued at $2,884,018.72. This represents a 6.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortrea

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fortrea by 5,021,169.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,125,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,519,000 after buying an additional 6,125,827 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Fortrea by 91.6% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,821,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,428,000 after purchasing an additional 2,304,677 shares in the last quarter. Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. lifted its position in shares of Fortrea by 86.4% in the 3rd quarter. Penn Davis Mcfarland Inc. now owns 1,097,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,944,000 after purchasing an additional 508,664 shares during the period. Starboard Value LP boosted its stake in shares of Fortrea by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Starboard Value LP now owns 8,400,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,000,000 after purchasing an additional 400,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its position in shares of Fortrea by 192.1% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 472,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,458,000 after buying an additional 311,018 shares during the period.

Fortrea Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTRE opened at $15.67 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $19.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $20.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Fortrea has a 12-month low of $15.53 and a 12-month high of $41.02.

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