Ariel Investments LLC Sells 150,509 Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

Ariel Investments LLC reduced its position in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,483,198 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 150,509 shares during the period. Ariel Investments LLC owned 5.09% of Knowles worth $89,350,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Knowles by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,561,358 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $230,418,000 after purchasing an additional 82,827 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Knowles by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 9,475,339 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $169,135,000 after buying an additional 265,814 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Knowles by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,499,431 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $49,814,000 after buying an additional 106,763 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Knowles by 2.5% during 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 during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Knowles by 10.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,051,346 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,986,000 after buying an additional 191,383 shares in the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Knowles from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 24th.

Knowles Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of KN opened at $16.45 on Friday. Knowles Co. has a 1-year low of $12.19 and a 1-year high of $20.86. The company has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.21 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.75.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.18. Knowles had a negative net margin of 34.66% and a positive return on equity of 5.52%. The firm had revenue of $132.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $128.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.18 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis.

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).