Shares of Knight Transportation, Inc. (NYSE:KNX) have received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and nine have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $38.00.
Several brokerages recently issued reports on KNX. Credit Suisse Group restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $35.00 target price (up previously from $32.00) on shares of Knight Transportation in a report on Friday, April 14th. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Knight Transportation from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $41.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 5th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Knight Transportation from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $36.00 in a report on Monday, April 17th. BidaskClub upgraded shares of Knight Transportation from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 30th. Finally, Vertical Research began coverage on shares of Knight Transportation in a report on Thursday, April 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock.
In related news, VP James E. Jr. Updike sold 2,800 shares of Knight Transportation stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total transaction of $100,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 16,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $575,432. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Vice Chairman Gary J. Knight sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.03, for a total transaction of $412,875.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,269 shares of company stock worth $1,022,977 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 9.90% of the company’s stock.
A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in Knight Transportation by 3.4% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,403,622 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $294,802,000 after buying an additional 309,790 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Knight Transportation by 129,468.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 7,898,465 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $247,616,000 after buying an additional 7,892,369 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Knight Transportation by 5.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,689,091 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $178,353,000 after buying an additional 275,392 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Knight Transportation by 45.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,276,086 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $158,429,000 after buying an additional 1,329,855 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Knight Transportation by 17.7% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,460,276 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $108,480,000 after buying an additional 520,401 shares during the period. 87.94% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Shares of Knight Transportation (KNX) traded up 2.54% during trading on Tuesday, hitting $36.30. The stock had a trading volume of 1,604,341 shares. Knight Transportation has a 52-week low of $26.85 and a 52-week high of $38.80. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $36.17 and a 200 day moving average of $33.75. The firm has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a PE ratio of 37.42 and a beta of 0.86.
Knight Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 26th. The transportation company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, meeting the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.25. Knight Transportation had a net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 10.39%. The firm had revenue of $273.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $283.88 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.31 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Knight Transportation will post $1.00 EPS for the current year.
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 30th. This represents a $0.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Knight Transportation’s payout ratio is 25.00%.
About Knight Transportation
Knight Transportation, Inc is a provider of multiple truckload transportation and logistics services, which involve the movement of trailer or container loads of freight from origin to destination for a single customer. The Company operates through two segments: Trucking and Logistics. Its Trucking segment consists of three operating units: dry van truckload, temperature-controlled truckload and drayage services.
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