Short Interest in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Drops By 6.5%

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) saw a large decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,150,000 shares, a decline of 6.5% from the January 15th total of 3,370,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 597,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.3 days. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Trading of Knowles

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in Knowles by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 14,417 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $287,000 after buying an additional 588 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of Knowles by 20.0% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,643 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 607 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Knowles by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,095 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd grew its stake in shares of Knowles by 4.3% in the third quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 17,985 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $324,000 after purchasing an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Knowles by 10.0% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 9,276 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the period. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Knowles Price Performance

KN stock traded up $0.11 during trading on Monday, reaching $18.36. 1,607,776 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 508,772. The company has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.84 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The company has a 50-day moving average of $19.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $18.48. Knowles has a twelve month low of $15.00 and a twelve month high of $20.85.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.16% and a negative net margin of 27.53%. The company had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Susquehanna cut their target price on Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com downgraded Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 26th. Finally, Craig Hallum lowered Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday.

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).