Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) Rating Reiterated by Benchmark

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by research analysts at Benchmark in a research note issued on Monday, Benzinga reports.

FWRD has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Forward Air from $17.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $57.80.

Forward Air Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FWRD traded down $1.26 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $24.74. The stock had a trading volume of 270,358 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,078,919. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $654.08 million, a P/E ratio of 7.27 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $21.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.32. Forward Air has a 1-year low of $11.21 and a 1-year high of $79.51.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The transportation company reported ($23.29) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.18) by ($23.11). Forward Air had a return on equity of 5.37% and a net margin of 4.08%. The business had revenue of $643.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $642.92 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.91 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 92.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Forward Air will post -0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Forward Air

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Forward Air by 14.2% during 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 raised its position 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 during the period. Private Management Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Forward Air by 34.1% during the 2nd quarter. Private Management Group Inc. now owns 1,336,687 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $25,451,000 after acquiring an additional 339,982 shares during the period. MFN Partners Management LP purchased a new position in Forward Air in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $17,208,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Forward Air by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 803,393 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $50,511,000 after buying an additional 25,523 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

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.