Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Short Interest Update

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) was the target of a large drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,810,000 shares, a drop of 21.1% from the March 15th total of 3,560,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 816,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.4 days. Approximately 3.3% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on KN. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Knowles Stock Performance

KN traded up $0.16 on Friday, hitting $14.41. 1,194,423 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 672,764. The company has a 50 day moving average of $15.88 and a 200-day moving average of $17.89. Knowles has a 12-month low of $12.19 and a 12-month high of $20.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a PE ratio of -5.44 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.22 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knowles

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in KN. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Knowles by 50.0% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,763 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after purchasing an additional 7,925 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Knowles in the 1st quarter valued at about $326,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Knowles by 1,518.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 45,022 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $684,000 after acquiring an additional 42,241 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Knowles by 725.6% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,643 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,444 shares during the period. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division grew its holdings in Knowles by 123.5% in the 1st quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 21,747 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $331,000 after buying an additional 12,017 shares during the period. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Knowles

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).