TD Cowen Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) Stock

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) had its price objective lifted by equities researchers at TD Cowen from $60.00 to $78.00 in a report released on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the transportation company’s stock. TD Cowen’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 19.58% from the stock’s current price.

KNX has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. UBS Group raised Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $54.00 to $66.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Evercore raised Knight-Swift Transportation from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, March 27th. Citigroup raised Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $64.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Benchmark upped their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.71.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Performance

Shares of KNX opened at $65.23 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $59.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market capitalization of $10.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 310.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.11. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 52-week low of $37.76 and a 52-week high of $67.75.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The transportation company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by ($0.20). The business had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. Knight-Swift Transportation had a net margin of 0.45% and a return on equity of 2.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.28 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Knight-Swift Transportation

In other Knight-Swift Transportation news, CFO Joshua Smith sold 5,770 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.91, for a total value of $351,450.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,214 shares in the company, valued at approximately $561,224.74. The trade was a 38.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Kevin P. Knight sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.00, for a total value of $1,830,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman owned 1,305,347 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $79,626,167. This represents a 2.25% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 42,930 shares of company stock worth $2,581,186 in the last three months. Corporate 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 added to or reduced their stakes in KNX. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 23.6% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,918,523 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $675,380,000 after buying an additional 2,468,293 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Knight-Swift Transportation by 513.6% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,416,865 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $126,354,000 after buying an additional 2,022,996 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation during the fourth quarter worth approximately $92,070,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 269.7% during the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,231,439 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $88,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,791 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Knight-Swift Transportation by 252.4% during the third quarter. Junto Capital Management LP now owns 2,262,145 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $89,377,000 after purchasing an additional 1,620,224 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.77% of the company’s stock.

Knight-Swift Transportation News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Knight-Swift Transportation this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokerages raised price targets and reiterated buy/outperform ratings, signaling analyst confidence in upside (UBS to $79, TD Cowen to $78, Benchmark to $75, Stifel to $70, Baird to $70). These calls underpin upside expectations and likely stabilized sentiment after the print. Analyst Upgrades
• Positive Sentiment: Management says it’s pushing double‑digit truckload rate hikes as market capacity tightens — a direct positive for freight revenue and future margin recovery if implemented across volumes. Knight‑Swift eyes double-digit truckload rate gains
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen’s reiterated buy and analyst commentary highlighted tighter capacity, regulatory tailwinds, and margin upside as reasons to be bullish — supportive for medium‑term thesis. TD Cowen / TipRanks note
• Neutral Sentiment: Company reported Q1 revenue roughly in line with expectations and provided an earnings‑call deck/transcript; revenue was modestly up year‑over‑year but EPS declined versus last year. Market will watch cadence of rate realization and cost trends. Earnings Call Transcript
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks and other coverage noted KNX met some consensus Q1 estimates (Zacks: EPS in line with its consensus) — which reduces downside from an outright miss but leaves questions on margin recovery timing. Zacks coverage
• Negative Sentiment: Press coverage (WSJ) highlighted that Knight‑Swift swung to a first‑quarter loss and cited higher fuel costs (linked to geopolitical events) and market tightness as near‑term headwinds — a clear driver of today’s weakness. WSJ: First‑quarter loss
• Negative Sentiment: Reported EPS of $0.09 was well below some street expectations and materially down from prior year, raising near‑term profit‑margin concerns despite revenue stability. This likely prompted profit‑taking after recent gains. Q1 Earnings Snapshot

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.