Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) shares gained more than 17% in pre-open Friday trading following the company’s reported Q3 results, with EPS of $0.41 coming in better than the consensus estimate of $0.36.
Revenue rose 6.5% year-over-year to $2.02 billion, beating the consensus estimate of $1.9B.
"Freight demand remains stable at low levels in the truckload market and relatively strong in the less-than-truckload market ("LTL"). Considerable truckload rate and cost pressure continue to mount as the truckload over-supply continues to rationalize and the industry approaches equilibrium,” said CEO David Jackson.
The company expects adjusted EPS for full-year 2023 to be in the range of $2.10-2.20 (from the previous range of $2.10-$2.30), compared to the consensus estimate of 2.07.
JPMorgan is no longer Underweight-rated on KNX amid a shifting narrative.
"We are upgrading KNX to Neutral from Underweight in large part as the USX acquisition is showing progress sooner than expected and in a very difficult truckload market," JPM analysts said.
"Expectations were uniformly negative heading into earnings and fell even further after the disappointing update by J.B. Hunt earlier in the week, we expect KNX will be able to hang on to most of its +16% post-market gains on the USX narrative shifting to be less negative."
BofA analysts raised the price target by $4 to $65 per share on the Buy-rated stock.
"The better-than-expected results were driven by the carrier’s accelerated integration of US Xpress (27% of Knight-Swift truck fleet after its July merger) as it pulled out costs and lowered USX’s spot exposure to 15% from 45%," they said.
Additional reporting by Senad Karaahmetovic