Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Short Interest Down 6.5% in January

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

Institutional Trading of Knowles

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Knowles by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,561,358 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $230,418,000 after acquiring an additional 82,827 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Knowles by 2.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 9,475,339 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $169,135,000 after purchasing an additional 265,814 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Knowles by 54,279.3% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,621,626 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,268,000 after buying an additional 2,616,805 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Knowles by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,499,431 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $49,814,000 after buying an additional 106,763 shares in the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Knowles by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 2,226,761 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,379,000 after buying an additional 54,404 shares during the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Knowles Stock Performance

NYSE KN opened at $18.35 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.83. Knowles has a fifty-two week low of $15.00 and a fifty-two week high of $20.85. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $19.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.48.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). Knowles had a negative net margin of 34.66% and a positive return on equity of 5.52%. The firm had revenue of $142.50 million during the quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on KN. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Craig Hallum lowered Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $17.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday.

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).