Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) vs. Burning Rock Biotech (NASDAQ:BNR) Critical Review

Fortrea (NASDAQ:FTRE) and Burning Rock Biotech (NASDAQ:BNR) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Fortrea and Burning Rock Biotech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fortrea	-10.09%	1.98%	0.78%
Burning Rock Biotech	-111.25%	-72.31%	-53.21%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Fortrea and Burning Rock Biotech, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fortrea	1	7	3	1	2.33
Burning Rock Biotech	0	0	0	0	N/A

Fortrea presently has a consensus price target of $27.20, indicating a potential upside of 13.81%. Given Fortrea’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Fortrea is more favorable than Burning Rock Biotech.

Volatility and Risk

Fortrea has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Burning Rock Biotech has a beta of 0.15, indicating that its share price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.0% of Burning Rock Biotech shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Fortrea shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 30.3% of Burning Rock Biotech shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Fortrea and Burning Rock Biotech”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fortrea	$3.01 billion	0.71	-$3.40 million	($1.39)	-17.19
Burning Rock Biotech	$509.81 million	0.06	-$92.07 million	($6.46)	-0.50

Fortrea has higher revenue and earnings than Burning Rock Biotech. Fortrea is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Burning Rock Biotech, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Fortrea beats Burning Rock Biotech on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The Enabling Services segment provides patient access and clinical trial technology solutions to customers that streamline complex randomization and optimize the trial drug supply process. The company offers delivery models that include full service, functional service provider, and hybrid service structures. It also offers phase I-IV clinical trial management, differentiated technology enabled trial solutions, and post approval services, as well as consulting services. The company serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device organizations. Fortrea Holdings Inc. was incorporated in 2023 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About Burning Rock Biotech

Burning Rock Biotech Limited primarily develops and commercializes cancer therapy selection tests in the People's Republic of China. It operates in three segments: Central Laboratory Business, In-Hospital Business, and Pharma Research and Development Services. The company primarily offers next-generation sequencing-based tissue and liquid biopsy cancer therapy selection and prognosis prediction tests for various range of cancer types, including lung cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, lymphomas, thyroid cancer, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, and bladder cancer using tissue and liquid biopsy samples. Its principal products include OncoCompass IO, a corresponding test for liquid biopsy samples; OncoScreen IO, a pan-cancer test for tissue samples; and OncoCompass Target, a ctDNA liquid biopsy-based test for NSCLC. In addition, the company provides ColonCore for assessing microsatellite loci related to MSI status and detecting mutations in genes associated with gastrointestinal cancers; and brPROPHET, a pre-operative ctDNA detection and post-operative MRD calling for relapsed patients. Further, it has development and commercialization agreement with Myriad Genetics, Inc. to in-license Myriad myChoice tumor testing in China; licensing agreement with Oncocyte Corporation to in-license DetermaRx, a risk stratification test for early stage lung cancer patients in China; and collaborations on clinical trials and research studies with AstraZeneca, Bayer, Johnson & Johnson, CStone, BeiGene, Abbisko Therapeutics, and IMPACT Therapeutics and Merck KGaA. Additionally, the company offers OncoMaster, an automatic NGS data analysis and report interpretation machine for in-hospital model. Burning Rock Biotech Limited was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, China.