Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) Sees Large Decrease in Short Interest

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) was the target of a large drop in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 5,900,000 shares, a drop of 16.1% from the November 15th total of 7,030,000 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,960,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Knight-Swift Transportation Price Performance

Shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock opened at $55.43 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $55.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.32. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 52 week low of $45.55 and a 52 week high of $60.99. The company has a market capitalization of $8.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 241.01, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.02. Knight-Swift Transportation had a return on equity of 1.81% and a net margin of 0.50%. The business had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio is currently 278.27%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KNX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Knight-Swift Transportation from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Knight-Swift Transportation has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.81.

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 on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.19, for a total value of $1,703,061.01. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Ploeg David Vander sold 500 shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.10, for a total value of $28,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 30,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,754,625.90. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knight-Swift Transportation

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 10.9% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,594,817 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $379,133,000 after buying an additional 744,412 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 27.6% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,431,299 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $271,121,000 after acquiring an additional 1,176,069 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 13.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 467,647 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,740,873 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $147,529,000 after acquiring an additional 46,436 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 3.6% during the second quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,637,206 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $81,729,000 after acquiring an additional 57,493 shares during the last quarter. 88.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.