Jefferies Financial Group Lowers Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) to Hold

Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has $21.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $25.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on FTRE. William Blair reiterated a market perform rating on shares of Fortrea in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. Evercore ISI downgraded shares of Fortrea from an outperform rating to an in-line rating and reduced their price target for the company from $31.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Fortrea from $38.00 to $28.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Fortrea in a research report on Thursday, June 6th. They set a neutral rating and a $28.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Fortrea from $30.00 to $21.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fortrea has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $24.90.

Fortrea Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FTRE opened at $19.84 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $1.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.27, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.56. Fortrea has a 52 week low of $18.07 and a 52 week high of $41.02. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $23.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.38.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.03) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $689.08 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.52 earnings per share. Fortrea’s revenue was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Fortrea will post 0.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Fortrea

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Fortrea by 311.2% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 78,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,165,000 after purchasing an additional 59,690 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new stake in Fortrea during the 1st quarter worth $6,560,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Fortrea by 171.6% during the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 268,882 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,793,000 after purchasing an additional 169,882 shares during the period. 13D Management LLC acquired a new position in Fortrea in the 4th quarter worth $4,568,000. Finally, Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Fortrea by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 367,203 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,740,000 after buying an additional 88,159 shares in the last quarter.

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.