Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on FTRE. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Fortrea from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Fortrea from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 20th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $21.50 price target on shares of Fortrea in a research report on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Fortrea from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Fortrea in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.95.

Fortrea Trading Down 6.0%

Shares of FTRE opened at $20.02 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98. Fortrea has a 12-month low of $8.55 and a 12-month high of $26.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.90 billion, a PE ratio of -27.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.62 and a beta of 1.93. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.76.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $691.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $671.57 million. Fortrea had a positive return on equity of 10.72% and a negative net margin of 3.18%. As a group, research analysts predict that Fortrea will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Anshul Thakral sold 99,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.16, for a total value of $1,913,490.04. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 316,797 shares in the company, valued at $6,069,830.52. This trade represents a 23.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. 0.73% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fortrea

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new position in Fortrea during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,488,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Fortrea by 163.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,299,862 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,241,000 after purchasing an additional 807,081 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in Fortrea by 81.4% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,432,709 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,496,000 after purchasing an additional 643,000 shares during the period. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Fortrea in the first quarter worth $2,990,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in Fortrea in the first quarter worth $1,094,000.

About Fortrea

Fortrea Holdings Inc is a global contract research organization (CRO) that provides services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies. The company helps clients plan, manage and execute clinical development programs, supporting the testing of new medicines and therapies from early-stage research through regulatory approval and post-approval activities.

Its services include Phase I through Phase IV clinical trials, clinical operations, patient recruitment and access, data management, biostatistics, medical monitoring, pharmacovigilance and regulatory support.