Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) Updates Q1 Earnings Guidance

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) issued an update on its first quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $0.29-0.33 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $0.35. Knight-Swift Transportation also updated its Q4 guidance to $0.32-0.36 EPS.

Knight-Swift Transportation Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:KNX traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $52.66. 1,745,315 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,047,982. Knight-Swift Transportation 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 quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $50.35. The company has a market cap of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 128.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.92.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The transportation company reported $0.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.83 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.49 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 1.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s dividend payout ratio is presently 156.10%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on KNX. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $55.00 to $49.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group lowered their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $59.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Bank of America raised their target price on Knight-Swift Transportation from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Knight-Swift Transportation to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Knight-Swift Transportation presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $54.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Michael K. Liu sold 5,696 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.49, for a total transaction of $304,679.04. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Knight-Swift Transportation news, EVP Michael K. Liu sold 5,696 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert E. Synowicki, Jr. sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.32, for a total transaction of $133,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 21,833 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,164,135.56. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 85,196 shares of company stock worth $4,367,869 in the last three months. 3.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.