Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $59.38.

Several research firms have commented on KNX. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America increased their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Knight-Swift Transportation from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com upgraded Knight-Swift Transportation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Susquehanna upgraded shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Friday, January 3rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Knight-Swift Transportation

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KNX. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 88.7% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 685 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 322 shares during the period. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 87.2% in the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 747 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 348 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 84.3% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 809 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 34.2% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,145 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quarry LP increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 71.1% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,201 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 499 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.77% of the company’s stock.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock opened at $48.99 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.01. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 52-week low of $45.55 and a 52-week high of $61.51. The firm has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.10 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 1.01.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The transportation company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Knight-Swift Transportation had a net margin of 1.59% and a return on equity of 2.43%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is an increase from Knight-Swift Transportation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.47%. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 98.63%.

About Knight-Swift Transportation

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides freight transportation services in the United States and Mexico. The company operates through four segments: Truckload, Less-than-truckload (LTL), Logistics, and Intermodal. The Truckload segment provides transportation services, which include irregular route and dedicated, refrigerated, expedited, flatbed, and cross-border operations.