Knowles (NYSE:KN) Hits New 52-Week High – Here’s Why

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $19.74 and last traded at $19.60, with a volume of 119578 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.93.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Knowles Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a PE ratio of -8.09 and a beta of 1.42. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $17.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.67.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.06. The firm 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 company’s revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 EPS.

Insider Transactions at Knowles

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of Knowles stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $15,576,848.04. The trade was a 16.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $73,208.52. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 61,681 shares in the company, valued at $1,200,312.26. This trade represents a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 201,845 shares of company stock worth $3,774,234 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 2.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Knowles

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Knowles during the second quarter worth about $46,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its position in Knowles by 13.7% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 35,216 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $599,000 after purchasing an additional 4,242 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Knowles by 54,279.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,621,626 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $47,268,000 after buying an additional 2,616,805 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Knowles by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,993,942 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $193,102,000 after buying an additional 114,934 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Knowles during the 2nd quarter worth $78,000. Institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Knowles Company Profile

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).