Contrasting Forward Industries (FWDI) and Its Peers

Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FWDI) is one of 345 publicly-traded companies in the “Financial Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Forward Industries to related companies based on the strength of its dividends, earnings, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Forward Industries and its competitors’ 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	-405.72%	-21.94%	-5.67%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

43.0% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 15.9% of Forward Industries shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 21.8% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Forward Industries and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Forward Industries	1	1	3	0	2.40
Forward Industries Competitors	1897	6813	11511	414	2.51

Forward Industries currently has a consensus target price of $8.50, indicating a potential upside of 34.71%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential upside of 4.15%. Given Forward Industries’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Forward Industries is more favorable than its competitors.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Forward Industries and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Forward Industries	$18.19 million	-$166.97 million	52.58
Forward Industries Competitors	$24.20 billion	$1.07 billion	10.35

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

Volatility and Risk

Forward Industries has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Forward Industries’ competitors have a beta of 2.26, suggesting that their average stock price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Forward Industries competitors beat Forward Industries on 9 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.