William Blair Investment Management LLC Buys New Position in Knowles Corporation $KN

William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Knowles Corporation (NYSE:KN) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 494,516 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $20,513,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of KN. Hodges Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in Knowles by 66.2% in the 1st quarter. Hodges Capital Management Inc. now owns 217,386 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,582,000 after acquiring an additional 86,563 shares during the last quarter. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Knowles during the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,853,000. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new position in shares of Knowles during the 4th quarter worth about $1,117,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Knowles by 34.0% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 639,468 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $16,422,000 after acquiring an additional 162,092 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Knowles by 7.2% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 435,165 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $11,175,000 after acquiring an additional 29,221 shares during the last quarter. 96.35% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on KN shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Knowles from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Knowles from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $44.00 price objective on Knowles in a report on Friday, July 24th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Knowles from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.67.

Knowles Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NYSE:KN opened at $33.25 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.18 and a beta of 1.60. Knowles Corporation has a 1 year low of $20.50 and a 1 year high of $42.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 3.20.

Knowles (NYSE:KN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The communications equipment provider reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $166.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $156.97 million. Knowles had a net margin of 10.63% and a return on equity of 11.45%. Knowles’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.24 earnings per share. Knowles has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.340-0.380 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Knowles Corporation will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Knowles

In related news, SVP Raymond D. Cabrera sold 6,178 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.28, for a total transaction of $224,137.84. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 127,945 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,641,844.60. This trade represents a 4.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Cheryl L. Shavers sold 6,618 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.27, for a total value of $259,888.86. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 35,723 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,842.21. This trade represents a 15.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,997 shares of company stock worth $1,237,928. 2.24% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Knowles Profile

Knowles Corporation (NYSE: KN) is a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced micro-acoustic, audio processing and precision device solutions. The company’s product portfolio includes microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones, balanced armature receivers, acoustic filters, and custom audio processing integrated circuits. These solutions are designed to enable clear speech, enhanced voice capture and intelligent audio performance in a variety of end markets.

Founded in 1946, Knowles has evolved from its roots in vacuum tube components to become a pure-play audio technology provider following its spin-off from Dover Corporation in 2014.