Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Shares Acquired by Northern Trust Corp

Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN - Free Report) by 9.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,016,435 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 90,953 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned about 1.15% of Knowles worth $20,258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Knowles by 46.9% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,095 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Knowles by 835.5% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 2,741 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $55,000 after purchasing an additional 2,448 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Knowles by 72.4% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,451 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 1,449 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Knowles by 66.6% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 4,869 shares of the communications equipment provider's stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 1,947 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FourThought Financial Partners LLC acquired a new position in Knowles in the fourth quarter valued at $201,000. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Knowles Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE:KN traded up $0.05 on Friday, hitting $17.12. 778,157 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 686,917. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of -6.46 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $15.47 and a 200-day moving average of $17.69. Knowles Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.19 and a fifty-two week high of $20.86.

Knowles (NYSE:KN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.18. Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.52% and a negative net margin of 34.66%. The company had revenue of $132.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $128.95 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.18 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Craig Hallum upgraded Knowles from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $17.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, April 7th. StockNews.com lowered Knowles from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Knowles from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th.

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).