Knowles (NYSE:KN) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $20.67 and last traded at $20.65, with a volume of 22741 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $20.27.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on KN. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com cut Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 26th. Finally, Craig Hallum raised shares of Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th.

Knowles Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $1.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.64 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.21.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.16% and a negative net margin of 27.53%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share.

Insider Transactions at Knowles

In other Knowles news, SVP Robert J. Perna sold 21,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.56, for a total transaction of $370,164.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 66,063 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,160,066.28. This trade represents a 24.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $73,208.52. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 61,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,200,312.26. This trade represents a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 182,541 shares of company stock worth $3,436,500 in the last quarter. 2.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knowles

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of KN. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Knowles by 569.5% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 665,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $11,494,000 after buying an additional 566,476 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Knowles in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its stake in Knowles by 10.7% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 86,316 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,490,000 after acquiring an additional 8,343 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Knowles by 6.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,678,995 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $115,277,000 after acquiring an additional 375,822 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of Knowles by 10.2% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 26,634 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 2,463 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

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).