Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE)’s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $18.05, but opened at $23.35. Fortrea shares last traded at $24.90, with a volume of 1,157,651 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Fortrea from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Fortrea from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Barclays dropped their price target on Fortrea from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on Fortrea from $27.00 to $23.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortrea in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.60.

Fortrea Stock Up 30.2 %

The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.08. The company has a market capitalization of $2.11 billion, a PE ratio of -6.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last posted its quarterly 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 negative net margin of 10.09% and a positive return on equity of 1.98%. The business had revenue of $674.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $674.86 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.24 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Fortrea Holdings Inc. will post 0.59 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Fortrea

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sessa Capital IM L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Fortrea by 5.9% in the second quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 6,750,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $157,545,000 after buying an additional 375,000 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Fortrea by 3.2% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,938,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $157,075,000 after buying an additional 121,126 shares in the last quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA raised its holdings in Fortrea by 933.7% during the second quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA now owns 3,140,360 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,296,000 after purchasing an additional 2,836,563 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in Fortrea by 59.3% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,466,181 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,561,000 after purchasing an additional 918,240 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP boosted its position in Fortrea by 27.1% during the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 2,438,159 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,845,000 after purchasing an additional 519,344 shares in the last quarter.

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.