Central Pacific Bank Trust Division Acquires Shares of 9,730 Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 9,730 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $194,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KN. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Knowles by 569.5% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 665,947 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $11,494,000 after purchasing an additional 566,476 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Knowles during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its position in Knowles by 10.7% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 86,316 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,490,000 after acquiring an additional 8,343 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Knowles by 6.0% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,678,995 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $115,277,000 after acquiring an additional 375,822 shares during the period. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in Knowles by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 26,634 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $460,000 after purchasing an additional 2,463 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on KN shares. Susquehanna decreased 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. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 26th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Knowles news, SVP Robert J. Perna sold 21,080 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.56, for a total value of $370,164.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 66,063 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,160,066.28. This trade represents a 24.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through 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 transaction of $73,208.52. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 61,681 shares of the company’s stock, 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 sold a total of 182,541 shares of company stock worth $3,436,500 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.65% of the company’s stock.

Knowles Stock Up 1.3 %

Knowles stock opened at $20.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.35 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.79 billion, a PE ratio of -8.66 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.16. Knowles Co. has a 12 month low of $14.97 and a 12 month high of $20.49.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $142.50 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.97 million. Knowles had a negative net margin of 27.53% and a positive return on equity of 5.16%. The firm’s revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS.

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).