Analyzing Forward Industries (FWDI) & Its Rivals

Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FWDI) is one of 341 publicly-traded companies in the “Financial Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Forward Industries to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Forward Industries and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Forward Industries	1	1	2	0	2.25
Forward Industries Competitors	1987	6945	11711	445	2.50

Forward Industries currently has a consensus price target of $13.50, suggesting a potential upside of 136.84%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential downside of 6.28%. Given Forward Industries’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Forward Industries is more favorable than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Forward Industries and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Forward Industries	-2,073.82%	-18.05%	-17.03%
Forward Industries Competitors	-409.42%	-15.09%	-6.08%

Risk and Volatility

Forward Industries has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Forward Industries’ peers have a beta of 2.51, indicating that their average stock price is 151% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Forward Industries and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Forward Industries	$18.19 million	-$166.97 million	47.50
Forward Industries Competitors	$6.73 billion	$1.10 billion	7.29

Forward Industries’ peers have higher revenue and earnings than Forward Industries. Forward Industries is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

43.0% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 15.9% of Forward Industries shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 21.9% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Forward Industries peers beat Forward Industries on 11 of the 13 factors compared.

About Forward Industries

Forward Industries, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, markets, and distributes carry and protective solutions primarily for handheld electronic devices. The company operates in three segments: OEM Distribution, Retail Distribution, and Design. The OEM Distribution segment sources and distributes carrying cases and other accessories for medical monitoring and diagnostic kits; and various portable electronic and non-electronic products, such as sporting and recreational products, bar code scanners, GPS devices, tablets, and firearms. The Retail Distribution segment sources and sells smart-enabled furniture and a range of other products through agreements with various retailers, including in stores and online retailer websites. The Design segment provides hardware and software product design and engineering services. The company sells its products to original equipment manufacturers in the Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Forward Industries, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is headquartered in Hauppauge, New York.