Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX)

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) saw some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 20,016 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 994% compared to the typical volume of 1,829 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $65.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Bank of America downgraded Knight-Swift Transportation from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $66.00 to $46.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Benchmark began coverage on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $63.00 price target on the stock. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Knight-Swift Transportation currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.24.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Douglas L. Col bought 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $45.37 per share, with a total value of $226,850.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 5,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $226,850. The trade was a ∞ increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 88.7% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 685 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 84.3% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 809 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 71.1% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,201 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 499 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,254 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,335 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.77% of the company’s stock.

Knight-Swift Transportation Price Performance

KNX stock opened at $39.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.44 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $49.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.79. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 52-week low of $36.69 and a 52-week high of $61.51.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The transportation company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.03. Knight-Swift Transportation had a return on equity of 2.43% and a net margin of 1.59%. Equities research analysts forecast that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 2.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is a positive change from Knight-Swift Transportation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 98.63%.

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.