Mariko Gordon (Trades, Portfolio), CFA, founder, CEO and CIO of Daruma Capital Management, doubled her position in Forward Air Corp. (FWRD, Financial) in the third quarter of 2015.
Gordon has been in the investment industry for nearly three decades. She started as an apprentice to a portfolio manager at Manning & Napier Inc., in New York in 1986. Gordon had the privilege of learning from legendary guru Chuck Royce (Trades, Portfolio) who taught her how to assess a company's management and how to take – as well as avoid – risks.
Nine years after Gordon broke into the investment industry she decided to go off on her own and founded Daruma Capital Management with zero assets under management. Remarkably, today Gordon and her firm Daruma Capital Management own 48 holdings with a total value of $1.63 billion.
Gordon follows these simple philosophies that have generated her tremendous success over her career: thrift, resilience, hard work, intellectual curiosity and an ability to take and avoid risk.
Forward Air was founded in 1993. The company can be broken down into three segments: Forward Air Inc., Forward Air Solutions Inc. and Total Quality Inc. Forward Air is one of the leading providers of surface transportation in North America. It believes it has a differentiation advantage for ground transportation opposed to air because of the cheaper costs involved.
Forward Air Solutions is built on expedited LTLÂ (less than truckload) service shipping for relatively small freights. It guarantees on-time delivery to 92 cities across the U.S. and Canada. The company also does its best to decrease costs by giving its customers the option to have products picked up from the shipper, delivered to the final consignee or transferred at the airport. These three simple principles allow Forward Air Solutions to maximize handling efficiency of each shipment while minimizing freight loss and damage while improving transit times compared to traditional ground transportation.
Total Quality Inc. was acquired in March 2013. It provides maximum security and temperature-controlled logistics services, primarily truckload services, to the life sciences sector, particularly pharmaceutical and biotechnology products. Total Quality also provides truckload and less-than-truckload brokerage transportation services.
Forward Air Corp. has a market cap of $1.32 billion, an enterprise value of 41.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.75, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a dividend yield of 1.10.
Below is a Peter Lynch chart for Forward Air Corp.
According to GuruFocus, Forward Air Corp. has several good signs including an 8/10 financial strength rating and a 7/10 profitability and growth rating. The operating margins are expanding, which is usually a good sign, and the dividend yield is close to a five-year high. The company’s book value has been growing at an average rate of 11% over the past 10 years, which is also a good sign. Gordon is a legendary guru with experience, determination and a relentless drive.
Cheers to your investment success.
