Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) Short Interest Update

Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,140,000 shares, a drop of 7.9% from the August 15th total of 6,670,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,400,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.4 days. Currently, 6.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortrea

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. bought a new stake in Fortrea in the fourth quarter worth approximately $508,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Fortrea during the 4th quarter valued at about $21,549,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Fortrea in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $369,000. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Fortrea in the 4th quarter worth approximately $747,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new stake in Fortrea during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,134,000.

Fortrea Stock Performance

FTRE stock opened at $22.98 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.05 billion, a P/E ratio of -16.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a current ratio of 1.19. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.09. Fortrea has a 52 week low of $18.07 and a 52 week high of $41.02.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.07 by ($0.10). Fortrea had a negative net margin of 10.09% and a positive return on equity of 1.98%. The company had revenue of $662.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $689.08 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Fortrea will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup cut their price objective on Fortrea from $42.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Fortrea from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $27.00 in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Mizuho initiated coverage on Fortrea in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $27.00 price target on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Fortrea in a research note on Thursday, June 6th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Fortrea from $38.00 to $28.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.20.

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.