Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Lowers Holdings in Knife River Co. (NYSE:KNF)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P reduced its holdings in shares of Knife River Co. (NYSE:KNF) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 643,388 shares of the company’s stock after selling 16,837 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned about 1.14% of Knife River worth $65,394,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Knife River by 1,200.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 887,680 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,224,000 after acquiring an additional 819,439 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Knife River during the 4th quarter worth about $14,600,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new stake in Knife River in the 4th quarter valued at about $12,786,000. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Knife River in the 3rd quarter valued at about $10,267,000. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Knife River by 156.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 170,101 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,205,000 after buying an additional 103,713 shares in the last quarter. 80.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on KNF shares. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on shares of Knife River in a research note on Monday, March 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Knife River in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on Knife River from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $110.40.

Knife River Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE KNF opened at $96.10 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $97.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $96.65. Knife River Co. has a 12 month low of $66.13 and a 12 month high of $108.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 2.67 and a quick ratio of 1.64. The company has a market capitalization of $5.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.88.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $657.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $655.80 million. Knife River had a return on equity of 14.82% and a net margin of 6.96%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Knife River Co. will post 4.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Knife River

Knife River Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides aggregates- led construction materials and contracting services in the United States. It operates through Pacific, Northwest, Mountain, Central, and Energy Services segments. The company mines, processes, and sells construction aggregates, including crushed stone and sand, and gravel; and produces and sells asphalt and ready-mix concrete.