Traders Purchase Large Volume of Knight-Swift Transportation Call Options (NYSE:KNX)

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 4,036 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 131% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,750 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on KNX. Raymond James raised their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $60.00 to $62.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Susquehanna upgraded shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $58.56.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 29,779 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.19, for a total value of $1,703,061.01. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Ploeg David Vander sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.10, for a total value of $28,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 30,729 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,754,625.90. This represents 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 Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KNX. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 28.6% in the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 900 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 18.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,335 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 208 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,254 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 4.6% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 5,182 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $280,000 after acquiring an additional 228 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MQS Management LLC grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 3.7% in the second quarter. MQS Management LLC now owns 6,981 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $348,000 after purchasing an additional 250 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.77% of the company’s stock.

Knight-Swift Transportation Price Performance

Shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock opened at $56.36 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $55.51 and a 200 day moving average of $53.17. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 52 week low of $45.55 and a 52 week high of $60.99. The company has a market cap of $9.12 billion, a PE ratio of 245.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.98. 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.34 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 firm had revenue of $1.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.91 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.41 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 278.27%.

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.