Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,100,000 shares, a decline of 16.3% from the September 15th total of 4,900,000 shares. Currently, 21.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 857,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Forward Air from $17.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a report on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Forward Air

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FWRD. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the fourth quarter worth $317,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Forward Air by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,982,873 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $187,533,000 after acquiring an additional 63,322 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the fourth quarter worth $761,000. Cardinal Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Forward Air by 54.0% in the first quarter. Cardinal Capital Management now owns 42,164 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,312,000 after acquiring an additional 14,788 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the first quarter worth $308,000. 97.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Forward Air Stock Down 3.0 %

FWRD stock traded down $1.10 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $35.62. The stock had a trading volume of 407,103 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,030,578. The firm has a market cap of $941.72 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.51 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50-day moving average of $32.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.26. Forward Air has a 52-week low of $11.21 and a 52-week high of $79.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.70, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.33.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The transportation company reported ($23.29) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analysts’ expectations of $642.92 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.91 earnings per share. Forward Air’s revenue for the quarter was up 92.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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.