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

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) saw a significant decrease in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 5,540,000 shares, a decrease of 13.4% from the June 15th total of 6,400,000 shares. Approximately 27.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.3 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Forward Air from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Forward Air currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.86.

Forward Air Stock Up 10.2 %

Forward Air stock opened at $23.62 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $30.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. Forward Air has a 1-year low of $11.21 and a 1-year high of $121.38. The company has a market cap of $624.51 million, a P/E ratio of 6.91 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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $644.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.37 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Forward Air will post -0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Forward Air

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Forward Air by 14.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,407,797 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $106,017,000 after buying an additional 424,924 shares in the last quarter. Ridgemont Partners Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Forward Air by 172.7% during the 2nd quarter. Ridgemont Partners Management LLC now owns 1,910,615 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $36,378,000 after purchasing an additional 1,210,006 shares during the last quarter. Private Management Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Forward Air in the 1st quarter valued at about $31,007,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in 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 last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Forward Air during the fourth quarter worth about $43,281,000. Institutional investors own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

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.