Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) Price Target Raised to $66.00

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) had its target price lifted by Raymond James from $62.00 to $66.00 in a report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has a strong-buy rating on the transportation company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on KNX. Bank of America raised their target price on Knight-Swift Transportation from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.38.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Performance

NYSE:KNX opened at $57.22 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $55.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.44. The stock has a market cap of $9.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.98. Knight-Swift Transportation has a twelve month low of $45.55 and a twelve month high of $61.51.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The transportation company reported $0.36 earnings per share 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 2.11 EPS for the current year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.12%. Knight-Swift Transportation’s payout ratio is 87.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Knight-Swift Transportation news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 29,779 shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.19, for a total value of $1,703,061.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Ploeg David Vander sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.10, for a total value of $28,550.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,729 shares in the company, valued at $1,754,625.90. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Knight-Swift Transportation

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of KNX. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 13.0% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,075,449 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $219,870,000 after purchasing an additional 467,647 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,740,873 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $147,529,000 after buying an additional 46,436 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 34.1% during the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,412,869 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $76,224,000 after buying an additional 359,566 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. purchased a new stake in Knight-Swift Transportation during the third quarter valued at approximately $70,185,000. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.5% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,337,737 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $72,171,000 after acquiring an additional 6,803 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.77% of the company’s stock.

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.