The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 950 Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company reduced its stake in Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) by 2.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 43,683 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after selling 950 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Knowles were worth $788,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of KN. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Knowles by 6.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 375,822 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Knowles by 54,279.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,621,626 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $47,268,000 after purchasing an additional 2,616,805 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Knowles by 14.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,410,368 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $25,429,000 after purchasing an additional 178,745 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Knowles by 64.0% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,092,161 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $19,692,000 after purchasing an additional 426,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP grew its position in shares of Knowles by 4.4% during the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 870,123 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $15,688,000 after purchasing an additional 36,700 shares in the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Craig Hallum raised shares of Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 26th. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their price objective 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Cheryl L. Shavers sold 12,579 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.29, for a total transaction of $217,490.91. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 48,933 shares in the company, valued at $846,051.57. This trade represents a 20.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 201,845 shares of company stock valued at $3,774,234. 2.65% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Knowles Stock Performance

Knowles stock opened at $19.82 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a PE ratio of -8.47 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $18.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $17.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.67 and a current ratio of 2.35. Knowles Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.97 and a fifty-two week high of $20.26.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $142.50 million for 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%. Knowles’s revenue was up 31.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share.

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).