Short Interest in Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) Grows By 12.1%

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,310,000 shares, a growth of 12.1% from the September 30th total of 5,630,000 shares. Approximately 4.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,000,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Insider Activity at Knight-Swift Transportation

In other news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 45,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.53, for a total value of $2,318,850.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,422,360 shares in the company, valued at $73,294,210.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.33, for a total transaction of $1,509,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 1,467,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,852,228.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 45,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.53, for a total transaction of $2,318,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 1,422,360 shares in the company, valued at approximately $73,294,210.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,196 shares of company stock worth $4,367,869 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 47,731 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,626,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the period. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.6% during the first quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 391,491 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $21,540,000 after purchasing an additional 2,175 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 9.3% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 96,842 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $5,328,000 after purchasing an additional 8,238 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 1.5% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 22,706 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,249,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the period. Finally, Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 17.5% during the 1st quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 5,515 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $303,000 after buying an additional 823 shares during the last quarter. 88.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE KNX traded down $0.97 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $52.08. The company had a trading volume of 1,934,936 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,062,360. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.17 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $50.40. The company has a market capitalization of $8.43 billion, a PE ratio of 226.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.92. Knight-Swift Transportation has a one year low of $45.55 and a one year high of $60.99.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. Knight-Swift Transportation had a return on equity of 1.81% and a net margin of 0.50%. The business’s revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 1.06 EPS for the current year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 278.26%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on KNX. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup assumed coverage on Knight-Swift Transportation in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Wolfe Research lowered Knight-Swift Transportation from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Knight-Swift Transportation to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Knight-Swift Transportation has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.94.

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.