Knowles (NYSE:KN) Hits New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $19.87 and last traded at $19.80, with a volume of 56244 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $19.46.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on KN shares. Craig Hallum raised Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 26th.

Knowles Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.50 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 2.35. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.80.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.97 million. Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.16% and a negative net margin of 27.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $73,208.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 61,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,200,312.26. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.98, for a total value of $2,993,127.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 820,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,576,848.04. This represents a 16.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 201,845 shares of company stock valued at $3,774,234. 2.57% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Knowles in the second quarter worth approximately $46,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Knowles by 54,279.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,621,626 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $47,268,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,805 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Knowles in the second quarter worth $78,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in Knowles by 33.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 14,411 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $249,000 after buying an additional 3,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Knowles by 222.3% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 82,387 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,422,000 after purchasing an additional 56,825 shares during the period. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Knowles

Knowles Corporation offers capacitors, radio frequency (RF) filtering products, balanced armature speakers, micro-acoustic microphones, and audio solutions in Asia, the United States, Europe, other Americas, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Precision Devices (PD); Medtech & Specialty Audio (MSA); and Consumer MEMS Microphones (CMM).