Forward Air Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Forward Air (Nasdaq: FWRD  ) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. Forward Air provides surface transportation and related logistics services to the North American deferred air freight market.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with seven analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts don't like Forward Air as much as competitor United Parcel Service overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $135.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11.8% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.40 per share. Estimates range from $0.35 to $0.43.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 91.7% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 90.6% giving it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Forward Air, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 43 posts in the past 30 days. Forward Air has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Forward Air's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Gross Margin	44.2%	42.5%	44.8%	44.5%
Operating Margin	15.0%	11.1%	14.0%	12.8%
Net Margin	9.1%	6.5%	8.9%	7.3%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Forward Air movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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