Stifel Nicolaus Lowers Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) to Hold

Stifel Nicolaus lowered shares of Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $47.00 price objective on the transportation company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $53.00.

KNX has been the subject of a number of other reports. Loop Capital lowered shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a buy rating to a hold rating and reduced their price target for the company from $63.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Stephens cut their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Knight-Swift Transportation has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $57.71.

Knight-Swift Transportation Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of KNX stock opened at $46.89 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $53.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $54.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.99, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 1 year low of $45.73 and a 1 year high of $60.99.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The transportation company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. Knight-Swift Transportation had a net margin of 1.50% and a return on equity of 2.54%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. This is a positive change from Knight-Swift Transportation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Knight-Swift Transportation

In other Knight-Swift Transportation news, CAO Cary M. Flanagan sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.24, for a total transaction of $112,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,118 shares in the company, valued at $287,836.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Knight-Swift Transportation

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation during the first quarter valued at about $365,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 95.3% during the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 92,172 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $5,071,000 after acquiring an additional 44,987 shares during the last quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation during the first quarter valued at about $353,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 2.4% during the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 46,400 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $2,553,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 9.1% during the first quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 109,035 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $5,999,000 after acquiring an additional 9,079 shares during the last quarter. 88.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Knight-Swift Transportation Company Profile

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.