BNP Paribas Financial Markets Has $562,000 Position in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) by 74.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 31,166 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 13,320 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in Knowles were worth $562,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in KN. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Knowles in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Knowles by 114.6% in 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 period. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Knowles during the second quarter valued at approximately $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Knowles by 37.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in Knowles during the second quarter worth $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of Knowles 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 61,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,200,312.26. The trade was a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.98, for a total value of $2,993,127.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 820,698 shares in the company, 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 201,845 shares of company stock worth $3,774,234. 2.65% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Craig Hallum upgraded Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Susquehanna lowered their price objective 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 downgraded shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 26th.

Knowles Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE KN opened at $19.82 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.47 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.67, a current ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $18.42 and its 200 day moving average is $17.90. Knowles Co. has a 52 week low of $14.97 and a 52 week high of $20.26.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. Knowles had a negative net margin of 27.53% and a positive return on equity of 5.16%. The business had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.97 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.25 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Knowles 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).