Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) Shares Gap Down to $50.78

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $50.78, but opened at $46.02. Knight-Swift Transportation shares last traded at $48.88, with a volume of 8,330,427 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on KNX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target 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. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $59.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $54.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 10th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $65.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $62.75.

Knight-Swift Transportation Trading Down 4.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $55.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.27. The stock has a market cap of $7.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.99.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 24th. The transportation company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.38). The company had revenue of $1.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. Knight-Swift Transportation had a return on equity of 3.93% and a net margin of 3.04%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. will post 2.35 EPS for the current year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. This is an increase from Knight-Swift Transportation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.12%.

Insider Activity

In other 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 value of $112,480.00. Following the transaction, 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 available at the SEC website. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 15.7% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,715,804 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $906,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,137,296 shares during 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 worth $865,977,000 after purchasing an additional 57,000 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,314,648 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $318,637,000 after acquiring an additional 166,644 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 8.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,015,443 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $262,859,000 after acquiring an additional 387,501 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 908.9% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,181,899 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $241,086,000 after acquiring an additional 3,767,408 shares in the last quarter. 88.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.