New York State Teachers Retirement System Sells 8,302 Shares of Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD)

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its stake in Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) by 19.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 33,360 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 8,302 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.12% of Forward Air worth $1,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Clearlake Capital Group L.P. boosted its stake in Forward Air by 255.2% in the 2nd quarter. Clearlake Capital Group L.P. now owns 3,825,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $72,828,000 after purchasing an additional 2,747,994 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Forward Air by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,407,797 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $106,017,000 after purchasing an additional 424,924 shares in the last quarter. Ridgemont Partners Management LLC boosted its stake in Forward Air by 172.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ridgemont Partners Management LLC now owns 1,910,615 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $36,378,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,006 shares in the last quarter. Private Management Group Inc. boosted its stake in Forward Air by 34.1% in the 2nd quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 1,336,687 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $25,451,000 after purchasing an additional 339,982 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MFN Partners Management LP acquired a new stake in Forward Air in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $17,208,000. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Forward Air Price Performance

NASDAQ:FWRD opened at $35.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.07, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market cap of $980.58 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.49 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $35.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.68. Forward Air Co. has a 1-year low of $11.21 and a 1-year high of $68.09.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The transportation company reported ($23.29) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($23.11). The firm had revenue of $643.67 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $642.92 million. Forward Air had a negative net margin of 31.14% and a negative return on equity of 98.80%. Forward Air’s revenue for the quarter was up 92.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.91 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Forward Air Co. will post -0.72 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Forward Air from $31.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Forward Air from $17.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $47.00 price target on shares of Forward Air and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Forward Air to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.25.

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.