Knowles (NYSE:KN) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold”

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Knowles (NYSE:KN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Sunday morning.

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

Knowles Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE:KN opened at $18.36 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.02. Knowles has a one year low of $12.19 and a one year high of $20.86. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.15. The stock has a market cap of $1.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.80 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Insider Activity at Knowles

In other news, SVP Raymond D. Cabrera sold 5,545 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 111,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,919,683.50. This represents a 4.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Knowles

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Knowles by 725.6% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,643 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 1,444 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Knowles by 46.9% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,095 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 669 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Knowles by 835.5% in the 4th quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 2,741 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 2,448 shares in the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Knowles by 47.0% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,703 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 1,184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new position in Knowles in the 1st quarter worth approximately $106,000. 96.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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).