Knowles Corporation (NYSE:KN) Receives $27.00 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of Knowles Corporation (NYSE:KN) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $27.00.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on KN shares. Zacks Research raised Knowles to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 19th. Robert W. Baird set a $30.00 price objective on Knowles in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Knowles in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Craig Hallum set a $28.00 price target on shares of Knowles and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their price target on Knowles from $18.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd.

Knowles Stock Performance

Knowles stock opened at $23.95 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $22.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $21.96. Knowles has a 52 week low of $12.19 and a 52 week high of $25.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.90 and a beta of 1.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The communications equipment provider reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $152.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $149.08 million. Knowles had a net margin of 7.27% and a return on equity of 8.98%. Knowles’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.26 earnings per share.

Insider Activity at Knowles

In other Knowles news, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 98,252 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.71, for a total transaction of $2,329,554.92. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 939,370 shares in the company, valued at $22,272,462.70. This represents a 9.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In the last three months, insiders sold 236,656 shares of company stock worth $5,658,969. Corporate insiders own 2.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Knowles by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 5,108,184 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $119,072,000 after buying an additional 484,500 shares in the last quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC boosted its position in Knowles by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cramer Rosenthal Mcglynn LLC now owns 1,421,713 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $33,140,000 after acquiring an additional 75,367 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Knowles by 365.4% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,394,341 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $32,502,000 after purchasing an additional 1,094,715 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Knowles by 52.8% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,360,918 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,723,000 after purchasing an additional 470,100 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Knowles by 6.1% during the second quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,220,236 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $21,635,000 after purchasing an additional 70,078 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Knowles Company Profile

Knowles Corporation (NYSE: KN) is a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced micro-acoustic, audio processing and precision device solutions. The company’s product portfolio includes microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones, balanced armature receivers, acoustic filters, and custom audio processing integrated circuits. These solutions are designed to enable clear speech, enhanced voice capture and intelligent audio performance in a variety of end markets.

Founded in 1946, Knowles has evolved from its roots in vacuum tube components to become a pure-play audio technology provider following its spin-off from Dover Corporation in 2014.