Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Short Interest Update

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN - Get Free Report) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,250,000 shares, an increase of 12.8% from the December 15th total of 2,880,000 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 581,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.6 days.

Insider Activity at Knowles

In other Knowles news, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.98, for a total transaction of $2,993,127.02. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 820,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,576,848.04. This represents a 16.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Robert J. Perna sold 21,080 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.56, for a total value of $370,164.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 66,063 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,160,066.28. The trade was a 24.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 182,541 shares of company stock worth $3,436,500. 2.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knowles

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Knowles in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Knowles by 114.6% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,002 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new position in shares of Knowles in the 2nd quarter valued at $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Knowles by 37.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,445 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares during the period. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Knowles in the 3rd quarter valued at $52,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.35% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on KN. Craig Hallum raised shares of Knowles to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Knowles from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, October 26th.

Knowles Price Performance

NYSE KN traded up $0.39 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $20.39. 397,550 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 607,889. The company has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a PE ratio of -8.71 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.67. Knowles has a 52-week low of $14.97 and a 52-week high of $20.85. The firm's 50-day moving average is $19.52 and its 200-day moving average is $18.37.

Knowles (NYSE:KN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $142.50 million during 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 business's revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.25 earnings per share.

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).