Analysts Set Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Price Target at $51.00

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Hold" by the five research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $51.00.

FWRD has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Forward Air from $17.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Forward Air in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Forward Air from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th.

Institutional Trading of Forward Air

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FWRD. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Forward Air by 413.5% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 837 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 674 shares during the period. Point72 DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Forward Air during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Gladius Capital Management LP lifted its position in Forward Air by 33.5% during the 2nd quarter. Gladius Capital Management LP now owns 1,964 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 493 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Forward Air by 2,329.3% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,992 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,910 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in Forward Air by 98.5% during the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 1,634 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 811 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.03% of the company's stock.

Forward Air Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ FWRD traded up $0.12 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $31.94. 486,901 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,051,551. 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 company has a market cap of $844.43 million, a PE ratio of 9.30 and a beta of 1.02. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $25.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.87. Forward Air has a 52 week low of $11.21 and a 52 week high of $79.51.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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). The company had revenue of $643.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $642.92 million. Forward Air had a negative net margin of 30.77% and a negative return on equity of 79.11%. The firm's revenue was up 92.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Forward Air will post -1.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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.