Short Interest in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Drops By 6.5%

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,150,000 shares, a drop of 6.5% from the January 15th total of 3,370,000 shares. Currently, 3.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 597,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knowles

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KN. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in shares of Knowles by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 14,417 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $287,000 after purchasing an additional 588 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its holdings in Knowles by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,643 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 607 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Knowles by 46.9% during the fourth 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. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Knowles by 4.3% in the third quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 17,985 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $324,000 after acquiring an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Knowles by 10.0% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 9,276 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $167,000 after acquiring an additional 845 shares in the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Craig Hallum downgraded Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $17.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday.

Knowles Stock Performance

Knowles stock traded up $0.22 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $18.51. 220,998 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 601,471. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 2.35. The stock has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.91 and a beta of 1.42. Knowles has a 52-week low of $15.00 and a 52-week high of $20.85. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $19.54 and its 200 day moving average is $18.48.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter. Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.16% and a negative net margin of 27.53%.

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).