Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) Short Interest Up 26.6% in May

Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) saw a large growth in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,910,000 shares, a growth of 26.6% from the May 15th total of 5,460,000 shares. Approximately 32.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,280,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.4 days.

Forward Air Stock Performance

FWRD traded up $0.62 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $21.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 968,099 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,110,131. Forward Air has a twelve month low of $11.21 and a twelve month high of $121.38. The stock has a market cap of $568.46 million, a P/E ratio of 6.34 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.27. 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 (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 return on equity of 5.37% and a net margin of 4.08%. The firm had revenue of $541.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $644.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.37 EPS. Research analysts expect that Forward Air will post -0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Forward Air

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Private Management Group Inc. acquired a new position in Forward Air in the first quarter valued at about $31,007,000. Ridgemont Partners Management LLC acquired a new position in Forward Air in the first quarter valued at about $21,796,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Forward Air in the fourth quarter valued at about $43,281,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Forward Air by 14.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,407,797 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $106,017,000 after buying an additional 424,924 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Forward Air during the third quarter worth about $27,870,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FWRD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Wolfe Research raised Forward Air from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Forward Air from $24.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Forward Air presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $76.43.

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.