Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) Issues Q2 Earnings Guidance

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $0.26-0.30 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $0.48. Knight-Swift Transportation also updated its Q1 guidance to $0.11-0.12 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on KNX. Loop Capital downgraded shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a buy rating to a hold rating and cut their price objective for the company from $63.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Thursday. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $59.00 to $50.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $58.00 to $52.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $57.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Knight-Swift Transportation has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $57.77.

Knight-Swift Transportation Price Performance

NYSE KNX opened at $48.16 on Friday. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 12 month low of $45.73 and a 12 month high of $60.99. The stock has a market cap of $7.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.21, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $54.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The transportation company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.38). Knight-Swift Transportation had a return on equity of 3.93% and a net margin of 3.04%. The firm had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This is a positive change from Knight-Swift Transportation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.12%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Knight-Swift Transportation

In other Knight-Swift Transportation news, CAO Cary M. Flanagan sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $287,836.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 473,707 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $27,309,000 after purchasing an additional 26,232 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 29.2% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 820,909 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $47,325,000 after purchasing an additional 185,561 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,021,291 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $865,977,000 after purchasing an additional 57,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 203,082 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $11,708,000 after purchasing an additional 25,135 shares in the last quarter. 88.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.