Knight-Swift Transportation Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:KNX)

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock investors purchased 4,943 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 226% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,518 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Knight-Swift Transportation news, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.00, for a total transaction of $1,830,000.00. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 1,305,347 shares in the company, valued at approximately $79,626,167. The trade was a 2.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Michael K. Liu sold 1,243 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.87, for a total value of $75,661.41. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 42,930 shares of company stock worth $2,581,186. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knight-Swift Transportation

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 23.6% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,918,523 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $675,380,000 after acquiring an additional 2,468,293 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,496,137 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $335,682,000 after buying an additional 76,342 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,397,338 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $439,016,000 after buying an additional 129,651 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,676,422 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $244,250,000 after buying an additional 315,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its holdings in Knight-Swift Transportation by 50.4% during the 4th quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 2,939,212 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $153,662,000 after buying an additional 984,422 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.77% of the company’s stock.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Performance

KNX opened at $62.00 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 151.22, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $58.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.45. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 1-year low of $37.70 and a 1-year high of $64.10.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 21st. The transportation company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Knight-Swift Transportation had a return on equity of 2.88% and a net margin of 0.88%.The business’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS. Knight-Swift Transportation has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 0.280-0.320 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 2.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Knight-Swift Transportation Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 6th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. This is an increase from Knight-Swift Transportation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Knight-Swift Transportation’s payout ratio is currently 195.12%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have issued reports on KNX. Stephens dropped their target price on Knight-Swift Transportation from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. UBS Group upgraded Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $66.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 18th. Evercore upgraded Knight-Swift Transportation from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Knight-Swift Transportation presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.83.

About Knight-Swift Transportation

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc (NYSE: KNX) is one of North America’s largest asset-based truckload carriers, offering a wide range of transportation and logistics services. The company was formed in 2017 through the merger of Knight Transportation and Swift Transportation, each with decades of experience in long-haul dry van and refrigerated freight. Since the merger, Knight-Swift has pursued a growth strategy that includes fleet expansions, targeted acquisitions, and investments in technology to enhance service reliability and network efficiency.

The company’s core business activities include full truckload operations for dry van, temperature-controlled and flatbed shipments.