Fortrea Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:FTRE)

Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 5,472 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 234% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,639 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on FTRE. Citigroup downgraded shares of Fortrea from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $23.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Fortrea in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Fortrea from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Barclays upped their target price on Fortrea from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Fortrea from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.30.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Fortrea news, CEO Thomas Pike sold 11,268 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 159,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,884,018.72. This represents a 6.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortrea

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Fortrea by 78.1% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 125,294 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,337,000 after buying an additional 54,932 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Fortrea by 16.9% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 214,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,001,000 after purchasing an additional 31,005 shares in the last quarter. First Financial Group Corp purchased a new position in Fortrea in the 4th quarter worth $272,000. Brandes Investment Partners LP lifted its stake in Fortrea by 38.8% in the fourth quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 61,918 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,155,000 after purchasing an additional 17,324 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its position in Fortrea by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 167,420 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,122,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the period.

Fortrea Price Performance

Fortrea stock traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $15.19. 148,186 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,108,227. The company has a market cap of $1.36 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.44, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $18.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.21. Fortrea has a 52-week low of $14.27 and a 52-week high of $41.02.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last issued 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). Fortrea had a positive return on equity of 2.00% and a negative net margin of 10.99%. The company had revenue of $674.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $674.86 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.24 EPS. Fortrea’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Fortrea will post 0.51 earnings per share 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.