Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) Trading Up 4.7% After Analyst Upgrade

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD)’s stock price shot up 4.7% on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $14.00 to $17.00. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Forward Air traded as high as $20.36 and last traded at $20.24. 56,154 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 95% from the average session volume of 1,135,704 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.34.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on FWRD. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.86.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Forward Air

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Private Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Forward Air in the 1st quarter valued at $31,007,000. Ridgemont Partners Management LLC acquired a new position in Forward Air in the first quarter valued at $21,796,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,281,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Forward Air by 14.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,407,797 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $106,017,000 after buying an additional 424,924 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Forward Air during the third quarter worth about $27,870,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Forward Air Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $18.43 and a 200-day moving average of $33.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $514.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.69 and a beta of 1.00.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The transportation company reported ($0.64) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.15) by ($0.49). Forward Air had a return on equity of 5.37% and a net margin of 4.08%. The company had revenue of $541.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Forward Air Co. will post -0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

About Forward Air

Forward Air Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an asset-light freight and logistics company in the United States and Canada. It operates in two segments, Expedited Freight and Intermodal. The Expedited Freight segment provides expedited regional, inter-regional, and national less-than-truckload services; local pick-up and delivery services; and other services, which include shipment consolidation and deconsolidation, warehousing, customs brokerage, and other handling.