Verition Fund Management LLC Has $5.92 Million Stock Position in Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX)

Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) by 77.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 109,665 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 47,785 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation were worth $5,916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in KNX. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Knight-Swift Transportation by 10.9% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,594,817 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $379,133,000 after acquiring an additional 744,412 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 27.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,431,299 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $271,121,000 after purchasing an additional 1,176,069 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,075,449 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $219,870,000 after purchasing an additional 467,647 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 1,637,206 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $81,729,000 after purchasing an additional 57,493 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.5% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,337,737 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $72,171,000 after purchasing an additional 6,803 shares during the period. 88.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Knight-Swift Transportation

In related news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 29,779 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Ploeg David Vander sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.10, for a total transaction of $28,550.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 30,729 shares in the company, valued at $1,754,625.90. This represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays raised their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $45.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Citigroup lowered shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $56.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $56.38.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Performance

NYSE KNX opened at $58.45 on Tuesday. Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $45.55 and a 1 year high of $60.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 254.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.77.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The transportation company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Knight-Swift Transportation’s payout ratio is 278.26%.

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.