What Does Forward Air Corporation’s (NASDAQ:FWRD) P/E Ratio Tell You?
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This article is for investors who would like to improve their understanding of price to earnings ratios (P/E ratios). We’ll show how you can use Forward Air Corporation’s (NASDAQ:FWRD) P/E ratio to inform your assessment of the investment opportunity. Based on the last twelve months, Forward Air’s P/E ratio is 17.44. That is equivalent to an earnings yield of about 5.7%.
Check out our latest analysis for Forward Air
How Do I Calculate A Price To Earnings Ratio?
The formula for P/E is:
Price to Earnings Ratio = Price per Share ÷ Earnings per Share (EPS)
Or for Forward Air:
P/E of 17.44 = $58.53 ÷ $3.36 (Based on the year to September 2018.)
Is A High Price-to-Earnings Ratio Good?
A higher P/E ratio means that buyers have to pay a higher price for each $1 the company has earned over the last year. All else being equal, it’s better to pay a low price — but as Warren Buffett said, ‘It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.’
How Growth Rates Impact P/E Ratios
P/E ratios primarily reflect market expectations around earnings growth rates. When earnings grow, the ‘E’ increases, over time. That means even if the current P/E is high, it will reduce over time if the share price stays flat. Then, a lower P/E should attract more buyers, pushing the share price up.
It’s nice to see that Forward Air grew EPS by a stonking 56% in the last year. And its annual EPS growth rate over 5 years is 10%. I’d therefore be a little surprised if its P/E ratio was not relatively high.
How Does Forward Air’s P/E Ratio Compare To Its Peers?
We can get an indication of market expectations by looking at the P/E ratio. The image below shows that Forward Air has a P/E ratio that is roughly in line with the logistics industry average (17.1).
Its P/E ratio suggests that Forward Air shareholders think that in the future it will perform about the same as other companies in its industry classification. The company could surprise by performing better than average, in the future. Further research into factors such asmanagement tenure, could help you form your own view on whether that is likely.
Don’t Forget: The P/E Does Not Account For Debt or Bank Deposits
Don’t forget that the P/E ratio considers market capitalization. In other words, it does not consider any debt or cash that the company may have on the balance sheet. Hypothetically, a company could reduce its future P/E ratio by spending its cash (or taking on debt) to achieve higher earnings.
Spending on growth might be good or bad a few years later, but the point is that the P/E ratio does not account for the option (or lack thereof).
Forward Air’s Balance Sheet
Net debt totals just 0.7% of Forward Air’s market cap. The market might award it a higher P/E ratio if it had net cash, but its unlikely this low level of net borrowing is having a big impact on the P/E multiple.
The Bottom Line On Forward Air’s P/E Ratio
Forward Air’s P/E is 17.4 which is about average (16.7) in the US market. Given it has reasonable debt levels, and grew earnings strongly last year, the P/E indicates the market has doubts this growth can be sustained.
Investors should be looking to buy stocks that the market is wrong about. If the reality for a company is better than it expects, you can make money by buying and holding for the long term. So this free report on the analyst consensus forecasts could help you make a master move on this stock.
Of course you might be able to find a better stock than Forward Air. So you may wish to see this free collection of other companies that have grown earnings strongly.
To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.
