Knowles (NYSE:KN) Shares Gap Down Following Weak Earnings

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) gapped down prior to trading on Friday after the company announced weaker than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $18.25, but opened at $16.70. Knowles shares last traded at $17.52, with a volume of 281,514 shares traded.

The communications equipment provider reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by ($0.01). Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.16% and a negative net margin of 27.53%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on KN. Craig Hallum cut Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $17.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday. StockNews.com cut Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 26th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knowles

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in Knowles during the third quarter valued at approximately $105,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Knowles by 37.6% during the third 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 in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its position in Knowles by 20.0% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,643 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 607 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its position in Knowles by 9.5% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 162,625 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,932,000 after purchasing an additional 14,045 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Knowles by 114.6% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,002 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,069 shares in the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Knowles Trading Up 0.6 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.84 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.47.

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).