Knife River Corporation (NYSE:KNF) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts have a consensus “Hold” rating on Knife River, with five buy ratings, three sells, two holds and one strong buy. The average 12-month price target is $78.29.
• Several brokerages recently cut their price targets, including B. Riley to $65, Oppenheimer to $80 and Wells Fargo to $62, while maintaining generally positive or neutral ratings.
• Knife River’s shares opened at $50.38, near their 52-week low of $49.65, after the company missed quarterly EPS estimates ($0.77 versus $1.13) despite revenue rising 12.6% year over year to $938.59 million.

Shares of Knife River Corporation (NYSE:KNF - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the eleven brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $78.29.

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. B. Riley Financial dropped their price target on shares of Knife River from $105.00 to $65.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 25th. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Knife River from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Knife River from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. DA Davidson initiated coverage on shares of Knife River in a research report on Monday, August 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $85.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Knife River from $73.00 to $62.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knife River

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KNF. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Knife River by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,464,690 shares of the company's stock valued at $119,579,000 after purchasing an additional 73,028 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Knife River by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,417,408 shares of the company's stock worth $99,730,000 after buying an additional 9,125 shares during the period. Capital World Investors acquired a new stake in Knife River during the 4th quarter worth approximately $71,166,000. Voss Capital LP lifted its stake in Knife River by 61.4% in the fourth quarter. Voss Capital LP now owns 710,048 shares of the company's stock valued at $49,952,000 after buying an additional 270,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Knife River in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,753,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.11% of the company's stock.

Knife River Price Performance

KNF opened at $50.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.46. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $62.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.28. Knife River has a one year low of $49.65 and a one year high of $96.28.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.36). The company had revenue of $938.59 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $931.39 million. Knife River had a return on equity of 8.73% and a net margin of 4.23%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Knife River will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Knife River Company Profile

Knife River Corporation is a construction materials and contracting company serving public and private infrastructure markets across the western and north-central United States. The company produces and supplies essential construction materials, including crushed stone, sand and gravel, ready-mix concrete, asphalt and related products.

In addition to materials production, Knife River provides construction services such as asphalt paving, concrete construction, site development, excavation and other heavy civil work.

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