First Hawaiian Bank Takes $311,000 Position in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

First Hawaiian Bank bought a new position in shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 15,592 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $311,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Knowles in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Knowles by 114.6% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,002 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Knowles during the 2nd quarter valued at $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Knowles by 37.6% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,445 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Knowles in the 3rd quarter worth $52,000. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Knowles

In other news, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were 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 owns 820,698 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,576,848.04. This trade represents a 16.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Robert J. Perna sold 21,080 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.56, for a total transaction of $370,164.80. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 66,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,160,066.28. This represents a 24.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 182,541 shares of company stock valued at $3,436,500 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.65% of the company’s stock.

Knowles Stock Down 2.3 %

NYSE:KN opened at $19.49 on Friday. Knowles Co. has a 1-year low of $14.97 and a 1-year high of $20.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.33 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a current ratio of 2.35, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $19.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.26.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

KN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 26th. Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 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).