Knowles (NYSE:KN) Reaches New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) reached a new 52-week high 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

KN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Craig Hallum upgraded Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com cut Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 26th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th.

Knowles Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business has a 50-day moving average of $17.93 and a 200 day moving average of $17.72.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Knowles news, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 61,681 shares in the company, valued at $1,200,312.26. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,576,848.04. This trade represents a 16.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 201,845 shares of company stock worth $3,774,234 over the last quarter. 2.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Knowles

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KN. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Knowles in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Knowles by 114.6% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,002 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in Knowles during the second quarter valued at approximately $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Knowles by 37.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 668 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Knowles during the second quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

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).