Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Decreases Stock Holdings in Knowles Corporation (NYSE:KN)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its holdings in shares of Knowles Corporation (NYSE:KN) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,276 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 1,483 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned 0.05% of Knowles worth $688,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Knowles by 725.6% in the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,643 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 1,444 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position 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 worth $42,000 after buying an additional 669 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Knowles by 835.5% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 2,741 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 2,448 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Knowles during the fourth quarter worth $203,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can bought a new position in Knowles during the fourth quarter valued at $203,000. 96.35% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Knowles

In other news, SVP Raymond D. Cabrera sold 5,545 shares of Knowles stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.25, for a total transaction of $95,651.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 111,286 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,919,683.50. The trade was a 4.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 2.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Knowles from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, 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 report on Monday, April 7th.

Knowles Stock Up 2.1%

NYSE:KN opened at $18.11 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $1.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.71 and a beta of 1.41. Knowles Corporation has a twelve month low of $12.19 and a twelve month high of $20.86. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.26.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last posted 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 negative net margin of 38.96% and a positive return on equity of 6.35%. The company had revenue of $132.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Knowles 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).