Brokerages Set Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Price Target at $76.43

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $76.43.

Several equities analysts recently commented on FWRD shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Wolfe Research upgraded Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 28th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Forward Air from $24.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 10th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a report on Wednesday, April 24th.

Forward Air Stock Up 1.1 %

Forward Air stock opened at $19.88 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $34.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Forward Air has a 1-year low of $11.21 and a 1-year high of $121.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $525.59 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.81 and a beta of 0.99.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The transportation company reported ($0.64) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by ($0.49). Forward Air had a net margin of 4.08% and a return on equity of 5.37%. The company had revenue of $541.81 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.37 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Forward Air will post -0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Forward Air

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the 3rd quarter valued at $17,743,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Forward Air during the fourth quarter valued at about $43,281,000. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of Forward Air by 23.4% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 410,664 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $25,818,000 after buying an additional 77,909 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Forward Air in the third quarter worth about $27,870,000. Finally, Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,701,000. Hedge funds and other 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.