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

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.00.

FWRD has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Forward Air from $17.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of Forward Air by 11,740.6% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 372,500 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $7,092,000 after acquiring an additional 375,700 shares in the last quarter. Luxor Capital Group LP bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,394,000. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C bought a new stake in Forward Air during the second quarter worth approximately $242,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in Forward Air during the second quarter worth approximately $181,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in Forward Air by 305.8% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 165,488 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $3,151,000 after buying an additional 124,704 shares during the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Forward Air Stock Up 3.8 %

Shares of FWRD opened at $34.02 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.70. Forward Air has a 12 month low of $11.21 and a 12 month high of $79.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $27.16 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.63. The firm has a market cap of $899.42 million, a P/E ratio of 9.95 and a beta of 1.02.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The transportation company reported ($23.29) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $643.67 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $642.92 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.91 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 92.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Forward Air will post -1.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.