Knife River Corporation (NYSE:KNF) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $78.29

Knife River Corporation (NYSE:KNF) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $77.14.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research lowered Knife River from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Knife River from $62.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Stephens set a $80.00 target price on shares of Knife River in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Knife River in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Knife River from $105.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 25th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Knife River

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Knife River by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,464,690 shares of the company’s stock valued at $119,579,000 after acquiring an additional 73,028 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Knife River by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,417,408 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,730,000 after buying an additional 9,125 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors bought a new stake in shares of Knife River in the 4th quarter valued at about $71,166,000. Voss Capital LP grew its position in shares of Knife River by 61.4% in the 4th quarter. Voss Capital LP now owns 710,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,952,000 after buying an additional 270,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Knife River during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,753,000. Institutional investors own 80.11% of the company’s stock.

Knife River Stock Up 3.5%

Shares of Knife River stock opened at $52.29 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.97 billion, a PE ratio of 21.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.46. Knife River has a 52-week low of $49.15 and a 52-week high of $96.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 2.66. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.40.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.13 by ($0.36). Knife River had a return on equity of 8.73% and a net margin of 4.23%.The firm had revenue of $938.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $931.39 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.89 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Knife River will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Knife River

Knife River Corporation is a construction materials and contracting company serving public and private infrastructure markets across the western and north-central United States. The company produces and supplies essential construction materials, including crushed stone, sand and gravel, ready-mix concrete, asphalt and related products.

In addition to materials production, Knife River provides construction services such as asphalt paving, concrete construction, site development, excavation and other heavy civil work.