Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Short Interest Update

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,400,000 shares, a drop of 7.4% from the May 31st total of 6,910,000 shares. Currently, 32.3% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,310,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.9 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Forward Air

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of FWRD. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Forward Air during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,281,000. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its stake in shares of Forward Air by 23.4% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 410,664 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $25,818,000 after buying an additional 77,909 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Forward Air during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,870,000. Trexquant Investment LP bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,701,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Forward Air by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 673,369 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $46,287,000 after acquiring an additional 45,912 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FWRD has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com cut Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Forward Air from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.86.

Forward Air Price Performance

FWRD stock opened at $19.45 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $18.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $33.42. Forward Air has a 52-week low of $11.21 and a 52-week high of $121.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $514.26 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.69 and a beta of 1.00.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). Forward Air had a net margin of 4.08% and a return on equity of 5.37%. The company had revenue of $541.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $644.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.37 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Forward Air will post -0.46 EPS 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.