Quest Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX)

Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,637 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $88,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 10.9% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,594,817 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $379,133,000 after purchasing an additional 744,412 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 27.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,431,299 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $271,121,000 after acquiring an additional 1,176,069 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,075,449 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $219,870,000 after acquiring an additional 467,647 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,637,206 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $81,729,000 after acquiring an additional 57,493 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,337,737 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $72,171,000 after acquiring an additional 6,803 shares during the period. 88.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KNX has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $56.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Knight-Swift Transportation has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.38.

Insider Transactions at Knight-Swift Transportation

In other news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 29,779 shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.19, for a total transaction of $1,703,061.01. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 transaction of $28,550.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 30,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,754,625.90. This represents 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 currently owned by insiders.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Performance

NYSE KNX opened at $59.36 on Friday. Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $45.55 and a 1 year high of $60.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.61 billion, a PE ratio of 258.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $51.69.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.02. Knight-Swift Transportation had a net margin of 0.50% and a return on equity of 1.81%. The business had revenue of $1.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio is currently 278.26%.

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.