Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 2,616,805 Shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN)

Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Knowles Co. (NYSE:KN) by 54,279.3% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,621,626 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,616,805 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Knowles were worth $47,268,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in KN. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in Knowles during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Knowles by 114.6% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,002 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Knowles during the 2nd quarter worth about $39,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Knowles by 37.6% during the third 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 during the period. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Knowles during the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. 96.35% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on KN. Craig Hallum upgraded Knowles to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on Knowles from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Knowles from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 26th.

Knowles Stock Performance

Shares of KN stock opened at $18.58 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 company has a market cap of $1.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.94 and a beta of 1.42. Knowles Co. has a one year low of $14.97 and a one year high of $19.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $17.78 and a 200-day moving average of $17.66.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Air A. Jr. Bastarrica sold 3,762 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $1,200,312.26. This represents a 5.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Jeffrey Niew sold 157,699 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 820,698 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,576,848.04. This trade represents a 16.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 201,845 shares of company stock valued at $3,774,234. 2.65% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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).