** Shares of Fortrea Holdings rise 25.1% to $22.58 premarket

** Contract research firm's Q3 EBITDA of $64.2 mln beats Wall Street estimates of $61.9 mln - data compiled by LSEG

** Higher bookings for services improved co's book-to-bill ratio to 1.23x from 0.96x in Q2

** Co's Q3 revenue of $674.9 is in line with estimates

** However, FTRE's Q3 adj EPS of 23 cents is below estimates of 25 cents

** Co also lowers upper end of 2024 revenue forecast to $2.73 bln from $2.75 bln, keeping lower end at $2.7 bln

** Analysts expect 2024 revenue of $2.7 bln

** Brokerage Evercore ISI sees the stock reacting positively to the reported numbers and outlook

** EBITDA margins expanded to 9.5%, which should help to provide some comfort in the path back to double-digit margins starting in Q4 - Evercore

** Up to last close, stock down 48.3% YTD

(Reporting by Puyaan Singh)

((Puyaan.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))