JPMorgan Chase & Co. Buys 191,383 Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) by 10.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,051,346 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 191,383 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Knowles were worth $36,986,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Knowles by 54,279.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,616,805 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Knowles in the second quarter valued at $78,000. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Knowles by 33.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 14,411 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 3,600 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Knowles by 222.3% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 82,387 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,422,000 after buying an additional 56,825 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Knowles by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 196,056 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $3,535,000 after acquiring an additional 7,059 shares during the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 820,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,576,848.04. The trade was a 16.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.46, for a total value of $73,208.52. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 61,681 shares in the company, valued at $1,200,312.26. The trade was a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 182,541 shares of company stock valued at $3,436,500 in the last 90 days. 2.65% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Knowles Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:KN opened at $20.43 on Tuesday. 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 1-year low of $14.97 and a 1-year high of $20.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.73 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $19.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.17.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.97 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. Knowles’s revenue for the quarter was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

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).