River Road Asset Management LLC Cuts Position in Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD)

River Road Asset Management LLC cut its stake in Forward Air Co. (NASDAQ:FWRD) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 398,619 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 5,097 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC owned approximately 1.55% of Forward Air worth $25,061,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Forward Air by 15,487.6% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 726,538 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $49,942,000 after buying an additional 721,877 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Forward Air by 809.8% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 683,566 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $46,988,000 after acquiring an additional 608,430 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Forward Air by 54.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,213,405 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $83,410,000 after purchasing an additional 428,912 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in Forward Air in the third quarter worth about $27,870,000. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group acquired a new stake in Forward Air during the third quarter valued at approximately $22,874,000. 97.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FWRD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Forward Air from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut Forward Air from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Forward Air from $80.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 22nd. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Forward Air in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of Forward Air from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Forward Air currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.14.

Forward Air Stock Down 10.2 %

FWRD opened at $22.65 on Thursday. Forward Air Co. has a twelve month low of $22.57 and a twelve month high of $121.38. The firm has a market cap of $597.28 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $32.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.38, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.46.

Forward Air (NASDAQ:FWRD) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The transportation company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.97 by ($0.16). Forward Air had a return on equity of 15.30% and a net margin of 10.58%. The firm had revenue of $338.43 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $406.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.65 earnings per share. Forward Air’s quarterly revenue was down 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Forward Air Co. will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Forward Air 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.