Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 12,800 Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 12,800 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $805,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Forward Air by 86.9% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 669 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in Forward Air by 306.9% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 948 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 715 shares during the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Forward Air in the 4th quarter valued at about $99,000. AlphaMark Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Forward Air in the 3rd quarter valued at about $154,000. Finally, Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Forward Air in the 3rd quarter valued at about $207,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Forward Air Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FWRD opened at $22.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $587.26 million, a P/E ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $30.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $50.39. Forward Air Co. has a fifty-two week low of $21.70 and a fifty-two week high of $121.38.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last posted 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 analysts’ expectations of $406.96 million. Forward Air had a return on equity of 15.30% and a net margin of 10.58%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Forward Air Co. will post 0.56 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on FWRD. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target 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. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target 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. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research cut shares of Forward Air from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Forward Air currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.14.

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.