Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Receives $136.67 Average PT from Brokerages

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD – Get Rating) has received a consensus rating of “Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $136.67.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FWRD. Wolfe Research downgraded Forward Air from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird downgraded Forward Air from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $110.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 5th. Stephens upgraded Forward Air from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Forward Air from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 10th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on Forward Air from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 30th.

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of FWRD. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Forward Air by 18.3% in the second quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 136,764 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $12,275,000 after buying an additional 21,111 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management acquired a new stake in Forward Air during the third quarter worth approximately $217,000. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its stake in Forward Air by 16.7% during the third quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 30,597 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,540,000 after purchasing an additional 4,376 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Forward Air by 21.8% during the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 25,889 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,149,000 after purchasing an additional 4,640 shares during the period. Finally, Emerald Advisers LLC grew its stake in Forward Air by 3.4% during the third quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 230,556 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $19,141,000 after purchasing an additional 7,687 shares during the period. 98.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NASDAQ:FWRD opened at $90.85 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $98.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $102.54. The company has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.60 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 1.72. Forward Air has a fifty-two week low of $80.56 and a fifty-two week high of $125.71.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 9th. The transportation company reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $459.93 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $439.13 million. Forward Air had a return on equity of 20.80% and a net margin of 6.37%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. Research analysts predict that Forward Air will post 5.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 3rd were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 2nd. This is a boost from Forward Air’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Forward Air’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.94%.

Forward Air Company Profile (Get Rating)

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 final mile, truckload, shipment consolidation and deconsolidation, warehousing, customs brokerage, and other handling.

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