Knife River (NYSE:KNF) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday, Zacks reports.

Several other research firms have also commented on KNF. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Knife River from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, November 2nd. Stephens raised their target price on shares of Knife River from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Knife River from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. B. Riley Financial lowered their target price on shares of Knife River from $105.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 25th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Knife River from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.29.

Knife River Stock Performance

Shares of KNF stock opened at $58.29 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $54.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. Knife River has a 12 month low of $47.79 and a 12 month high of $96.28.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The company reported $2.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.58 by ($0.15). The business had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. Knife River had a return on equity of 8.22% and a net margin of 3.98%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.52 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Knife River will post 2.40 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of KNF. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Knife River by 5.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,464,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,579,000 after buying an additional 73,028 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Knife River by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 392,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,050,000 after buying an additional 62,592 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor bought a new position in Knife River during the 2nd quarter valued at about $21,242,000. Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its stake in Knife River by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 123,530 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,086,000 after acquiring an additional 9,990 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Knife River by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 112,098 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,153,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. 80.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Knife River

Knife River Corporation is an aggregates-based construction materials and contracting company headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. It produces and sells construction materials, including crushed stone, sand and gravel, ready-mix concrete, asphalt and cement. The company also provides construction services such as asphalt paving, road building, site development and underground utility work. Its operations serve customers across parts of the western, northwestern and central United States, including public agencies and commercial customers.