Analysts Set Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Target Price at $80.14

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD - Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the eight analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $80.14.

FWRD has been the topic of a number of research reports. Benchmark restated a "hold" rating on shares of Forward Air in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Forward Air from a "peer perform" rating to an "underperform" rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Forward Air from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Forward Air from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Forward Air from $80.00 to $55.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 22nd.

Forward Air Stock Up 2.5 %

FWRD stock traded up $0.73 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $30.01. 706,705 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 946,699. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. Forward Air has a 1-year low of $26.35 and a 1-year high of $121.38. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $34.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.86. The company has a market cap of $791.36 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.98.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The transportation company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.16). The company had revenue of $338.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $406.96 million. Forward Air had a return on equity of 15.30% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Forward Air will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Forward Air

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Forward Air during the 3rd quarter worth $17,743,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Forward Air during the 3rd quarter worth $27,870,000. UBS Group AG raised its stake in shares of Forward Air by 809.8% during the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 683,566 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $46,988,000 after buying an additional 608,430 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Forward Air during the 3rd quarter worth $1,895,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Forward Air by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 673,369 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $46,287,000 after buying an additional 45,912 shares during the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.