Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $1.05 Million Investment in Knife River Co. (NYSE:KNF)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Knife River Co. (NYSE:KNF) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 15,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,052,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of KNF. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its stake in shares of Knife River by 87.6% in the 3rd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 49,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,408,000 after buying an additional 23,022 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Knife River in the 3rd quarter worth $893,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Knife River by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,540,292 shares of the company’s stock worth $270,532,000 after buying an additional 46,737 shares during the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Knife River in the 4th quarter worth $53,000. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Knife River by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 1,120,623 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,720,000 after buying an additional 184,192 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.11% of the company’s stock.

Knife River Price Performance

Shares of Knife River stock opened at $77.06 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $76.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.05. Knife River Co. has a 52 week low of $33.67 and a 52 week high of $83.78. The company has a market capitalization of $4.36 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.15. The company has a quick ratio of 1.71, a current ratio of 2.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.16. Knife River had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 6.46%. The business had revenue of $646.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $566.47 million. The firm’s revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Knife River Co. will post 3.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KNF has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Knife River in a research note on Friday, March 8th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Knife River from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Loop Capital initiated coverage on Knife River in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on Knife River in a research report on Friday, January 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $81.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $76.20.

Knife River Profile

Knife River Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides aggregates- led construction materials and contracting services in the United States. It operates through Pacific, Northwest, Mountain, Central, and Energy Services segments. The company mines, processes, and sells construction aggregates, including crushed stone and sand, and gravel; and produces and sells asphalt and ready-mix concrete.