Head-To-Head Contrast: Forward Industries (FWDI) versus Its Rivals

Forward Industries (NASDAQ:FWDI) is one of 346 publicly-traded companies in the “Financial Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare Forward Industries to related companies based on the strength of its valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Forward Industries has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Forward Industries’ rivals have a beta of 2.26, suggesting that their average stock price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Forward Industries and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Forward Industries	1	1	2	0	2.25
Forward Industries Competitors	1881	6738	11413	408	2.51

Forward Industries presently has a consensus target price of $7.50, indicating a potential upside of 74.62%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential upside of 5.18%. Given Forward Industries’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Forward Industries is more favorable than its rivals.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Forward Industries	$18.19 million	-$166.97 million	-2.10
Forward Industries Competitors	$6.64 billion	$1.06 billion	9.87

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

42.8% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 15.9% of Forward Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.5% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Forward Industries and its rivals’ 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	-397.66%	-19.10%	-6.60%

Summary

Forward Industries rivals beat Forward Industries on 11 of the 13 factors compared.

Forward Industries Company Profile

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.