Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) Short Interest Up 6.3% in July

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,730,000 shares, an increase of 6.3% from the June 30th total of 5,390,000 shares. Approximately 3.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,070,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.8 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research downgraded Knight-Swift Transportation from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Stephens lowered their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $65.00 to $60.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com raised Knight-Swift Transportation to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $55.00 to $53.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.79.

Knight-Swift Transportation Price Performance

Shares of KNX traded down $1.96 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $52.47. 1,904,685 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,137,728. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.48 billion, a PE ratio of 78.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.94. Knight-Swift Transportation has a fifty-two week low of $45.55 and a fifty-two week high of $60.99. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.04.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 1.98% and a net margin of 0.88%. The business had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.49 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 1.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Knight-Swift Transportation

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 908.9% during the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,181,899 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $241,086,000 after buying an additional 3,767,408 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation during the 4th quarter valued at about $201,232,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 15.7% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,715,804 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $906,016,000 after purchasing an additional 2,137,296 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 225.2% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 865,235 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $49,881,000 after purchasing an additional 599,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp grew its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 4,385.6% during the 4th quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 391,371 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $22,563,000 after purchasing an additional 382,646 shares in the last quarter. 88.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.