Knowles (NYSE:KN) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to Buy Rating

by · The Cerbat Gem

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Knowles (NYSE:KN – Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

KN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Craig Hallum upgraded Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Knowles from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on KN

Knowles Stock Performance

Shares of KN stock opened at $18.03 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The business has a 50 day moving average of $16.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.27. Knowles has a 52 week low of $12.19 and a 52 week high of $20.86. The company has a market cap of $1.57 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.68 and a beta of 1.41.

Knowles (NYSE:KN – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18. Knowles had a positive return on equity of 6.35% and a negative net margin of 38.96%. The company had revenue of $132.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.18 earnings per share. Knowles’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Insider Transactions at Knowles

In related news, SVP Raymond D. Cabrera sold 5,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.25, for a total transaction of $95,651.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 111,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,919,683.50. The trade was a 4.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knowles

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Knowles by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,561,358 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $230,418,000 after purchasing an additional 82,827 shares in the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC raised its holdings in Knowles by 3.9% during the first quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 4,657,747 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $70,798,000 after purchasing an additional 174,549 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Knowles by 3.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,592,223 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $39,402,000 after buying an additional 92,792 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Knowles by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,226,761 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,379,000 after buying an additional 54,404 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP increased its holdings in shares of Knowles by 31.5% in the first quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,611,679 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $24,498,000 after buying an additional 386,155 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

About Knowles

(Get Free Report)

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).

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