Brandes Investment Partners LP Buys New Shares in Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX)

Brandes Investment Partners LP purchased a new position in Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 606,855 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,251,000. Brandes Investment Partners LP owned about 0.38% of Knight-Swift Transportation as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation in the 1st quarter worth $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 67.5% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 628 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 3,461.9% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 748 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 727 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 28.6% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 900 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $45,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 50.7% during the second quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 1,020 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 343 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.77% of the company’s stock.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of Knight-Swift Transportation stock opened at $54.05 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $8.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 80.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.93. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $52.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $50.57. Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. has a 52-week low of $45.55 and a 52-week high of $60.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.03). Knight-Swift Transportation had a net margin of 0.88% and a return on equity of 1.98%. The business had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. Knight-Swift Transportation’s revenue was up 18.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. will post 1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 1.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s payout ratio is 95.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on KNX. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $58.00 to $57.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Wolfe Research lowered Knight-Swift Transportation from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Knight-Swift Transportation from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on Knight-Swift Transportation in a research report on Friday, June 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $56.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $57.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Knight-Swift Transportation

In other news, EVP Michael K. Liu sold 5,696 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.49, for a total transaction of $304,679.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Michael K. Liu sold 5,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.49, for a total value of $304,679.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 45,000 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,422,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $73,294,210.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 85,196 shares of company stock worth $4,367,869 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Knight-Swift Transportation Profile

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.