Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys 47,462 Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) by 97.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 96,279 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,462 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Knowles were worth $1,919,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in KN. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Knowles in the 4th quarter valued at $16,297,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Knowles by 33.1% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,392,668 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $43,140,000 after purchasing an additional 594,484 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP grew its position in shares of Knowles by 40.8% in the fourth quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,225,524 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $24,425,000 after purchasing an additional 355,401 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Knowles by 2.9% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 9,475,339 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $169,135,000 after purchasing an additional 265,814 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Knowles by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,051,346 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $36,986,000 after purchasing an additional 191,383 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on KN. StockNews.com raised Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 17th. Craig Hallum downgraded shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $17.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, February 14th.

Knowles Stock Down 0.7 %

NYSE KN opened at $15.94 on Friday. Knowles Co. has a twelve month low of $15.13 and a twelve month high of $20.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.83. The stock has a market cap of $1.40 billion, a PE ratio of -6.02 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.27.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $142.50 million for the quarter. Knowles had a positive return on equity of 5.52% and a negative net margin of 34.66%.

About Knowles

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).