Willis Investment Counsel Increases Stock Holdings in Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE)

Willis Investment Counsel lifted its position in Fortrea Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:FTRE) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 185,473 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,138 shares during the quarter. Willis Investment Counsel owned approximately 0.21% of Fortrea worth $3,459,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Starboard Value LP lifted its position in Fortrea by 5.0% during the third quarter. Starboard Value LP now owns 8,400,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $168,000,000 after purchasing an additional 400,000 shares during the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. lifted its position in Fortrea by 2.3% during the third quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. now owns 6,908,044 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,161,000 after purchasing an additional 158,044 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Fortrea by 5,021,169.7% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 6,125,949 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,519,000 after purchasing an additional 6,125,827 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Fortrea by 91.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,821,404 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,428,000 after purchasing an additional 2,304,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in Fortrea by 7.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,250,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,014,000 after purchasing an additional 233,577 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Fortrea from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $28.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Fortrea from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Baird R W lowered shares of Fortrea from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Fortrea from $22.00 to $20.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Fortrea from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fortrea currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.30.

Fortrea Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of Fortrea stock opened at $16.81 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $20.66. The company has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.92, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.24. Fortrea Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $16.30 and a 12-month high of $41.02.

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $674.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $674.86 million. Fortrea had a negative net margin of 10.99% and a positive return on equity of 2.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.24 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Fortrea Holdings Inc. will post 0.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fortrea

In other news, CEO Thomas Pike sold 11,268 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.04, for a total value of $203,274.72. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,884,018.72. This represents a 6.58 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.