Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) Reaches New 1-Year Low at $22.30

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) shares reached a new 52-week low on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $22.30 and last traded at $22.62, with a volume of 106566 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $22.65.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on FWRD. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Forward Air from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Forward Air from $80.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 22nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of Forward Air from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Forward Air has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.14.

Forward Air Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38. The business’s 50 day moving average is $32.36 and its 200 day moving average is $52.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $592.53 million, a PE ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.98.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The transportation company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by ($0.16). Forward Air had a return on equity of 15.30% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm had revenue of $338.43 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $406.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. Forward Air’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Forward Air Co. will post 0.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Forward Air

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FWRD. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Forward Air by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,836 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $570,000 after buying an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in Forward Air by 3.9% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 5,053 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $495,000 after buying an additional 192 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in Forward Air by 7.7% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 24,107 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,357,000 after buying an additional 1,730 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Forward Air by 55.8% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 13,970 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,366,000 after buying an additional 5,003 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its holdings in Forward Air by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 68,402 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $6,688,000 after buying an additional 3,715 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

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.