Forward Air downgraded to Underperform from Peer Perform at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research downgraded Forward Air to Underperform from Peer Perform with a $50 price target. Forward was the worst performing stock in the analyst’s transport coverage last year with significant downward EPS revisions and the announced acquisition of Omni Logistics, notes the analyst, who doesn’t see “great options” from here for the company. The firm expects it will either move forward with the “highly dilutive” Omni transaction and have much higher leverage or pay a significant break-up fee to get out of the deal, as it seems unlikely to the firm that Forward will win its court case to exit the deal without a break-up fee.