FWRD
Forward Air Corporation
FWRD trails on the overall score without a compensating advantage in the available component scores.
VRT
Vertiv Holdings Co
VRT has the edge over FWRD overall, supported by stronger fundamentals and stronger valuation.
FWRD Fundamentals
| Metric | Status |
|---|---|
| Healthy | |
| Weak | |
| Stable | |
| Weak |
FWRD's revenue is currently healthy, and its cash flow is stable, but its profitability and balance sheet are weak.
VRT Fundamentals
| Metric | Status |
|---|---|
| Strong | |
| Strong | |
| Strong | |
| Strong |
VRT's revenue, profitability, cash flow and balance sheet are all currently strong.
FWRD PE Valuation
FWRD has no meaningful PE right now: it lost money over the past year. If it returns to profit as analysts expect, today's price would be 57x next year's earnings.
VRT PE Valuation
| Level | PE | Price | Vs current |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | 23x | $210 | — |
| Current | 39x | $210 | — |
| Cheap | 58x | $308 | +47% |
| Fair | 72x | $383 | +83% |
| Expensive | 88x | $472 | +125% |
Historical ranges are pointers, not guarantees.
VRT's PE is in its cheap range at 39x. If earnings grow as analysts expect, today's price would be 23x next year's earnings.
FWRD Forward outlook
| Metric | Outlook |
|---|---|
| -- | |
| Returning to profit | |
| Growth | |
| Strongly weakening | |
| Limited | |
| Low |
Analysts expect FWRD to return to profit, with revenue growing. However, they disagree widely on these estimates.
VRT Forward outlook
| Metric | Outlook |
|---|---|
| Strongly improving | |
| Strong growth | |
| Strong growth | |
| Strongly improving | |
| Moderate | |
| Moderate |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on the outlook, with more favorable profitability expectations.
FWRD Earnings Per Share
| Quarter | TTM EPS | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Forward | $0.30 | — |
| Q3 2026 | -$8.03 | -$4.18 |
| Q2 2026 | -$8.89 | -$2.90 |
| Q1 2026 | -$2.92 | +$26.13 |
| Q4 2025 | -$3.51 | +$26.67 |
| Q3 2025 | -$3.85 | +$21.16 |
| Q2 2025 | -$5.99 | +$16.00 |
| Q1 2025 | -$29.05 | -1397% |
| Q4 2024 | -$30.18 | -570% |
FWRD is still losing money, but far less than before: $8.03 per share over the past year, against $30.18 at its worst in late 2024.
VRT Earnings Per Share
| Quarter | TTM EPS | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Forward | $9.14 | +71% |
| Q3 2026 | $5.35 | +102% |
| Q2 2026 | $4.42 | +111% |
| Q1 2026 | $3.98 | +131% |
| Q4 2025 | $3.41 | +166% |
| Q3 2025 | $2.65 | +75% |
| Q2 2025 | $2.09 | +62% |
| Q1 2025 | $1.72 | +64% |
| Q4 2024 | $1.28 | +7.6% |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on earnings quality, reporting a profit while its opponent remains loss making.
FWRD Quarterly Revenue
| Quarter | Revenue | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | $673.9M | +6.7% |
| Q2 2026 | $673M | +8.8% |
| Q1 2026 | $582M | -5.1% |
| Q4 2025 | $631.2M | -0.3% |
| Q3 2025 | $631.8M | -3.7% |
| Q2 2025 | $618.8M | -3.9% |
| Q1 2025 | $613.3M | +13% |
| Q4 2024 | $632.8M | +87% |
FWRD's revenue grew through 2024 and has held roughly level since: $674M last quarter, up 6.7% from the same quarter a year ago.
| Quarter | Margin | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 6.5% | +4.1 points |
| Q2 2026 | -30% | -33 points |
| Q1 2026 | 3.5% | +2.7 points |
| Q4 2025 | -0.5% | -12 points |
| Q3 2025 | 2.4% | -1.1 points |
| Q2 2025 | 3.1% | +173 points |
| Q1 2025 | 0.8% | +13 points |
| Q4 2024 | 12% | +14 points |
FWRD's operating margin was 6.5% last quarter, up 4.1 points from the same quarter a year ago.
VRT Quarterly Revenue
| Quarter | Revenue | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | $4.3B | +61% |
| Q2 2026 | $3.3B | +24% |
| Q1 2026 | $2.6B | +30% |
| Q4 2025 | $2.9B | +23% |
| Q3 2025 | $2.7B | +29% |
| Q2 2025 | $2.6B | +35% |
| Q1 2025 | $2B | +24% |
| Q4 2024 | $2.3B | +26% |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on sales, with more consistent year-over-year improvement.
| Quarter | Margin | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 23% | +3.5 points |
| Q2 2026 | 19% | +2.7 points |
| Q1 2026 | 17% | +2.3 points |
| Q4 2025 | 20% | +0.7 points |
| Q3 2025 | 19% | +1.4 points |
| Q2 2025 | 17% | -0.4 points |
| Q1 2025 | 14% | +1.9 points |
| Q4 2024 | 19% | +4.2 points |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on profitability, with a higher operating margin.
FWRD Free Cash Flow
| Quarter | Free cash flow | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | $32.2M | -34% |
| Q2 2026 | -$8.1M | +$9.9M |
| Q1 2026 | $38.8M | +147% |
| Q4 2025 | -$31.1M | -$584K |
| Q3 2025 | $48.6M | +19% |
| Q2 2025 | -$18M | +$41.7M |
| Q1 2025 | $15.7M | +$72.4M |
| Q4 2024 | -$30.5M | -194% |
FWRD still generates free cash flow, though less than at its 2022 peak: $32M over the past year.
VRT Free Cash Flow
| Quarter | Free cash flow | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | $654.9M | +41% |
| Q2 2026 | $926.5M | +233% |
| Q1 2026 | $654.2M | +145% |
| Q4 2025 | $885.6M | +143% |
| Q3 2025 | $463.5M | +36% |
| Q2 2025 | $277.9M | -19% |
| Q1 2025 | $266.8M | +162% |
| Q4 2024 | $364.5M | +18% |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on cash flow, with more consistent year-over-year improvement.
FWRD Total Shares
| Period | Change % | Net change |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterly | +0.1% | +44K shares |
| 1 year | +5% | +1.6M shares |
| 3 years | +26% | +6.8M shares |
| 5 years | +20% | +5.4M shares |
| Available history | +15% | +4.2M shares |
FWRD has 33M diluted shares, up 5% from a year ago.
| Quarter | Spent |
|---|---|
| Q4 2024 | — |
| Q3 2024 | — |
| Q2 2024 | — |
| Q1 2024 | — |
| Q4 2023 | — |
| Q3 2023 | $14M |
| Q2 2023 | $29.3M |
| Q1 2023 | $50.5M |
VRT Total Shares
| Period | Change % | Net change |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterly | 0% | -64.9K shares |
| 1 year | +0.4% | +1.8M shares |
| 3 years | +1.1% | +4.4M shares |
| 5 years | +10% | +36M shares |
| Available history | +63% | +152M shares |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on shareholder dilution, with a more favorable share count trend.
| Quarter | Spent |
|---|---|
| Q4 2025 | — |
| Q3 2025 | — |
| Q2 2025 | — |
| Q1 2025 | — |
| Q4 2024 | — |
| Q3 2024 | — |
| Q2 2024 | — |
| Q1 2024 | $599.9M |
FWRD Net Leverage
| Quarter | Net Leverage | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 99.4x | High |
| Q1 2026 | 7.5x | High |
| Q4 2025 | 8.4x | High |
| Q3 2025 | 5.9x | High |
| Q2 2025 | 6.2x | High |
| Q1 2024 | 32.1x | High |
| Q4 2023 | -0.8x | Net Cash |
| Q3 2023 | 0.5x | Very low |
FWRD's net debt is more than 20 years of its operating earnings (EBITDA), up from 6.2 years a year ago.
VRT Net Leverage
| Quarter | Net Leverage | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | -0.2x | Net Cash |
| Q2 2026 | 0.1x | Very low |
| Q1 2026 | 0.3x | Very low |
| Q4 2025 | 0.6x | Very low |
| Q3 2025 | 0.8x | Very low |
| Q2 2025 | 0.7x | Very low |
| Q1 2025 | 0.8x | Very low |
| Q4 2024 | 1.0x | Healthy |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on leverage, with a lower net debt burden relative to earnings.
FWRD Weekly Momentum
| Metric | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|
| RSI | 51.9 | Neutral |
| Stochastic | 47.8 | Neutral |
FWRD's weekly RSI is 52 (neutral) and its Stochastic is 48 (neutral).
VRT Weekly Momentum
| Metric | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|
| RSI | 43.0 | Neutral |
| Stochastic | 26.4 | Neutral |
VRT's weekly RSI is 43 (neutral) and its Stochastic is 26 (neutral).
FWRD PE vs Industrials Sector
| Metric | FWRD | Sector median | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|
| PE | N/A | 24x | — |
FWRD has no meaningful PE right now: it lost money over the past year.
VRT PE vs Industrials Sector
| Metric | VRT | Sector median | Relative |
|---|---|---|---|
| PE | 39x | 24x | 63% above |
| PE % | 3 | 58 | 55 pts below |
VRT is trading at 39x earnings, a 63% premium to the Industrials sector's median of 24x.
FWRD Weekly Moving Averages
| Moving average | MA price | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 8 week MA | $16.0 | 7.3% above |
| 20 week MA | $16.0 | 7% above |
| 50 week MA | $18.6 | 7.9% below |
| 100 week MA | $21.5 | 20% below |
| 200 week MA | $41.0 | 58% below |
FWRD has bounced recently, but its long-term trend is still down: it's above its 8- and 20-week averages, but 58% below its 200-week average.
VRT Weekly Moving Averages
| Moving average | MA price | Relative |
|---|---|---|
| 8 week MA | $221.8 | 5.5% below |
| 20 week MA | $254.4 | 18% below |
| 50 week MA | $253.9 | 17% below |
| 100 week MA | $189.1 | 11% above |
| 200 week MA | $123.5 | 70% above |
VRT has pulled back, but its long-term trend is still up: it's below its 8-, 20- and 50-week averages, but 70% above its 200-week average.
FWRD Yearly ROI
| Year | Start price | End price | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $69.3 | $76.1 | +9.8% |
| 2021 | $76.1 | $116.6 | +53% |
| 2022 | $116.6 | $105.4 | -9.6% |
| 2023 | $105.4 | $62.9 | -40% |
| 2024 | $62.9 | $30.1 | -52% |
| 2025 | $30.1 | $25.5 | -15% |
| 2026 YTD | $25.5 | $17.2 | -33% |
FWRD has finished four years in a row lower, and it's down 33% so far in 2026.
VRT Yearly ROI
| Year | Start price | End price | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $10.9 | $18.9 | +73% |
| 2021 | $18.9 | $24.9 | +31% |
| 2022 | $24.9 | $12.8 | -48% |
| 2023 | $12.8 | $48.0 | +275% |
| 2024 | $48.0 | $115.1 | +140% |
| 2025 | $115.1 | $167.6 | +46% |
| 2026 YTD | $167.6 | $209.6 | +25% |
VRT has the edge over FWRD on returns for 2026, with the stronger performance.