Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Shares Acquired by Inspire Investing LLC

Inspire Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) by 89.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,670 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 5,517 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Forward Air were worth $363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Forward Air by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,982,873 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $187,533,000 after buying an additional 63,322 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Forward Air by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 803,393 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $50,511,000 after purchasing an additional 25,523 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Forward Air during the 4th quarter worth approximately $43,281,000. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its stake in Forward Air by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 676,018 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $42,501,000 after buying an additional 4,648 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Forward Air by 46.0% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 645,931 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $40,610,000 after acquiring an additional 203,597 shares during the last quarter. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FWRD. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Forward Air from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Forward Air presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.86.

Forward Air Stock Up 1.4 %

FWRD opened at $25.20 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $666.29 million, a P/E ratio of 7.37 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $30.45. Forward Air Co. has a 52 week low of $11.21 and a 52 week high of $121.38. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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). The business had revenue of $541.81 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.00 million. Forward Air had a return on equity of 5.37% and a net margin of 4.08%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Forward Air Co. will post -0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Forward Air 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.