KNX vs. HTLD, HUBG, JBHT, LSTR, MRTN, ODFL, WERN, HRI, SNDR, and UHAL
Should you be buying Knight-Swift Transportation stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Knight-Swift Transportation include Heartland Express (HTLD), Hub Group (HUBG), J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT), Landstar System (LSTR), Marten Transport (MRTN), Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL), Werner Enterprises (WERN), Herc (HRI), Schneider National (SNDR), and U-Haul (UHAL). These companies are all part of the "transportation" sector.
Knight-Swift Transportation vs. Its Competitors
Heartland Express (NASDAQ:HTLD) and Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE:KNX) are both transportation companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.
Knight-Swift Transportation has a net margin of 2.22% compared to Heartland Express' net margin of -3.85%. Knight-Swift Transportation's return on equity of 3.03% beat Heartland Express' return on equity.
In the previous week, Heartland Express and Heartland Express both had 12 articles in the media. Knight-Swift Transportation's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat Heartland Express' score of 1.13 indicating that Knight-Swift Transportation is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Heartland Express has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Knight-Swift Transportation has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Knight-Swift Transportation has higher revenue and earnings than Heartland Express. Heartland Express is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Knight-Swift Transportation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Heartland Express pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Knight-Swift Transportation pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Heartland Express pays out -17.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Knight-Swift Transportation pays out 70.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Knight-Swift Transportation has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Knight-Swift Transportation is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
53.5% of Heartland Express shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.8% of Knight-Swift Transportation shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.7% of Heartland Express shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.0% of Knight-Swift Transportation shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Heartland Express currently has a consensus price target of $9.70, suggesting a potential upside of 12.53%. Knight-Swift Transportation has a consensus price target of $54.19, suggesting a potential upside of 27.20%. Given Knight-Swift Transportation's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Knight-Swift Transportation is more favorable than Heartland Express.
Summary
Knight-Swift Transportation beats Heartland Express on 17 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding KNX and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Knight-Swift Transportation Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:KNX) was last updated on 9/16/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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