Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.18 Per Share

Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (NYSE:KNX) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 13th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the transportation company on Tuesday, March 25th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Knight-Swift Transportation’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16.

Knight-Swift Transportation has increased its dividend by an average of 19.0% annually over the last three years. Knight-Swift Transportation has a dividend payout ratio of 18.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Knight-Swift Transportation to earn $3.50 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.3%.

Knight-Swift Transportation Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:KNX opened at $54.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a market capitalization of $8.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.24 and a beta of 0.99. Knight-Swift Transportation has a 52-week low of $45.55 and a 52-week high of $61.51. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $54.03.

Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The transportation company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.03. Knight-Swift Transportation had a net margin of 1.59% and a return on equity of 2.43%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Knight-Swift Transportation will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lowered shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $56.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Knight-Swift Transportation from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Knight-Swift Transportation from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America raised their price target on Knight-Swift Transportation from $61.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Susquehanna raised shares of Knight-Swift Transportation from a “neutral” rating to a “positive” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $59.38.

Knight-Swift Transportation Company Profile

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.