Inspire Investing LLC Buys 6,776 Shares of Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD)

Inspire Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) by 58.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,446 shares of the transportation company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,776 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC owned about 0.07% of Forward Air worth $351,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,437,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,281,000. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its position in shares of Forward Air by 23.4% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 410,664 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $25,818,000 after acquiring an additional 77,909 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,701,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of Forward Air by 244.3% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 95,963 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,985,000 after acquiring an additional 68,093 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Forward Air Stock Performance

Forward Air stock opened at $36.64 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.70, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $29.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $24.56. Forward Air Co. has a 52-week low of $11.21 and a 52-week high of $79.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $968.69 million, a P/E ratio of 10.71 and a beta of 1.02.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The transportation company reported ($23.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.18) by ($23.11). Forward Air had a negative return on equity of 79.11% and a negative net margin of 30.77%. The company had revenue of $643.67 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $642.92 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 92.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Forward Air Co. will post -1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FWRD. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Wolfe Research raised Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Forward Air from $17.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.00.

Forward Air Company Profile

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.