Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) Upgraded to “Buy” at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX – Get Rating) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Briefing.com reports. The firm currently has $66.00 target price on the transportation company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $58.00.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, April 21st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $88.00 to $80.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 21st. Credit Suisse Group cut shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from an outperform rating to a neutral rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $63.00 to $60.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 17th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a hold rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $65.35.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE KNX opened at $56.36 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 12-month low of $43.53 and a 12-month high of $64.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.15. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $55.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.89.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 20th. The transportation company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.61 billion. Knight-Swift Transportation had a return on equity of 10.42% and a net margin of 9.22%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.35 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 3.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 8th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.99%. Knight-Swift Transportation’s payout ratio is presently 13.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Knight-Swift Transportation news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 64,139 shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.59, for a total transaction of $3,629,626.01. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 64,139 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.59, for a total value of $3,629,626.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Dustin Ohlman sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.10, for a total transaction of $72,930.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 137 shares in the company, valued at $7,685.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 67,139 shares of company stock worth $3,799,422. 3.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,705,799 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $888,634,000 after buying an additional 39,580 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,894,447 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $701,114,000 after acquiring an additional 84,898 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 8.0% during the first quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,426,776 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $420,207,000 after acquiring an additional 551,443 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 2.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,314,648 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $318,637,000 after buying an additional 166,644 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,015,443 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $262,859,000 after buying an additional 387,501 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.95% of the company’s stock.

About Knight-Swift Transportation

(Get Rating)

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings, Inc engages in the provision of multiple truckload transportation and logistics services. It operates through the following business segments: Trucking, Logistics, and Intermodal. The Trucking segment comprises irregular route and dedicated, refrigerated, expedited, flatbed, and cross-border operations.