Eagle Asset Management Inc. Buys 104,750 Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) by 23.3% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 554,148 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 104,750 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. owned 0.63% of Knowles worth $10,601,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of KN. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Knowles in the 2nd quarter worth about $46,000. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its holdings in Knowles by 13.7% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 35,216 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $599,000 after acquiring an additional 4,242 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Knowles by 54,279.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,621,626 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,268,000 after acquiring an additional 2,616,805 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Knowles by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,993,942 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $193,102,000 after purchasing an additional 114,934 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Knowles during the second quarter worth $78,000. 96.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on KN. Susquehanna dropped their target price 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 upgraded Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Cheryl L. Shavers sold 12,579 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.29, for a total transaction of $217,490.91. Following the transaction, the director now owns 48,933 shares in the company, valued at $846,051.57. This represents a 20.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of Knowles stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total transaction of $73,208.52. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 61,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 201,845 shares of company stock worth $3,774,234 in the last 90 days. 2.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Knowles Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE KN opened at $18.93 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.67 billion, a PE ratio of -8.09 and a beta of 1.42. 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 Co. has a 12-month low of $14.97 and a 12-month high of $19.73. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.69.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last posted its 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 company 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 quarterly revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.25 earnings per share.

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).