Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) Receives “Hold” Rating from Benchmark

Benchmark reissued their hold rating on shares of Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) in a report published on Wednesday, Benzinga reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on FWRD. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Forward Air from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut Forward Air from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Wolfe Research cut Forward Air from a peer perform rating to an underperform rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Forward Air from $80.00 to $55.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Forward Air currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $80.14.

Forward Air Price Performance

Shares of Forward Air stock opened at $22.27 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $29.84 and a 200 day moving average of $50.04. Forward Air has a 12 month low of $21.70 and a 12 month high of $121.38. The firm has a market cap of $587.26 million, a PE ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The transportation company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.16). Forward Air had a return on equity of 15.30% and a net margin of 10.58%. The business had revenue of $338.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $406.96 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Forward Air will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FWRD. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Forward Air by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,982,873 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $187,533,000 after acquiring an additional 63,322 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Forward Air by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 803,393 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $50,511,000 after purchasing an additional 25,523 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in shares of Forward Air by 15,487.6% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 726,538 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $49,942,000 after buying an additional 721,877 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,281,000. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its position in Forward Air by 809.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 683,566 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $46,988,000 after purchasing an additional 608,430 shares during the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.