Short Interest in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) Grows By 12.8%

Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,250,000 shares, a growth of 12.8% from the December 31st total of 2,880,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 581,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.6 days. Approximately 3.8% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Knowles Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of Knowles stock traded down $0.65 during trading on Monday, reaching $18.28. The company had a trading volume of 542,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 541,348. The company has a market cap of $1.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.81 and a beta of 1.42. Knowles has a fifty-two week low of $14.97 and a fifty-two week high of $20.85. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $19.77 and its 200-day moving average is $18.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 2.35.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Knowles news, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.98, for a total transaction of $2,993,127.02. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 820,698 shares in the company, valued at $15,576,848.04. This represents a 16.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the company’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. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.57% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knowles

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in KN. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Knowles by 114.6% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,002 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new position in Knowles in the 2nd quarter valued at $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Knowles by 37.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Knowles in the 3rd quarter worth $52,000. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Knowles by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,643 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 607 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

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).