Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Short Interest Up 12.8% in December

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,250,000 shares, a growth of 12.8% from the December 15th total of 2,880,000 shares. Approximately 3.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 581,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Knowles Stock Up 1.9 %

NYSE KN opened at $20.39 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Knowles has a 12-month low of $14.97 and a 12-month high of $20.85. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $19.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.37.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. Knowles had a negative net margin of 27.53% and a positive return on equity of 5.16%. Knowles’s quarterly revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.25 EPS.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $73,208.52. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 61,681 shares in the company, valued at $1,200,312.26. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 820,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,576,848.04. This trade represents a 16.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 182,541 shares of company stock valued at $3,436,500. Company insiders own 2.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Knowles

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Knowles by 173.1% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 15,838 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 10,038 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank bought a new stake in Knowles during the fourth quarter valued at about $311,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Knowles by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 410,843 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $8,258,000 after acquiring an additional 18,439 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in shares of Knowles in the fourth quarter valued at about $194,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Knowles by 10.3% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,051,346 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,986,000 after purchasing an additional 191,383 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).