Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) Cut to Sell at Citigroup

Citigroup downgraded shares of Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) from a neutral rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Citigroup currently has $56.00 target price on the transportation company’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on KNX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $72.00 to $70.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven 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 data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $56.38.

Knight-Swift Transportation Price Performance

Shares of KNX opened at $55.91 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 1 year low of $45.55 and a 1 year high of $60.99. The stock has a market cap of $9.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 243.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $52.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.91.

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

Knight-Swift Transportation Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.14%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 278.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Ploeg David Vander sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 30,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,754,625.90. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 29,779 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.19, for a total value of $1,703,061.01. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in KNX. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators boosted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 87.2% in the 3rd quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 747 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 348 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted 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 valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 727 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 28.6% in the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 900 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 168.3% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 923 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 579 shares during the period. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 50.7% in the 2nd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 1,020 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the period. 88.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Knight-Swift Transportation Company 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.