Madison Investment Advisors LLC Buys New Position in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 124,841 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,488,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC owned approximately 0.14% of Knowles at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of KN. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 2,616,805 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Knowles in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $16,297,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Knowles by 33.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,392,668 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $43,140,000 after purchasing an additional 594,484 shares in the last quarter. Foundry Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Knowles in the third quarter valued at approximately $5,243,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised 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 valued at $169,135,000 after purchasing an additional 265,814 shares in the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Knowles Trading Down 1.0 %

KN stock opened at $15.94 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of -6.02 and a beta of 1.42. Knowles Co. has a one year low of $15.13 and a one year high of $20.86. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $17.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.30. 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 (NYSE:KN) last posted its quarterly 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). Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.52% and a negative net margin of 34.66%. The business had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on KN shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 17th. Craig Hallum downgraded shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $17.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, February 14th.

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).