Knife River (NYSE:KNF) Shares Break Above Fifty Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

Knife River Corporation (NYSE:KNF)’s share price crossed above its fifty day moving average during trading on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $55.90 and traded as high as $58.68. Knife River shares last traded at $57.5670, with a volume of 575,476 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on KNF shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Knife River from $62.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 5th. Wolfe Research upgraded Knife River from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Knife River from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Stephens set a $80.00 target price on shares of Knife River in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Knife River from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $69.29.

Knife River Stock Down 0.2%

The firm has a market cap of $3.26 billion, a PE ratio of 23.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.34 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 2.66 and a quick ratio of 1.60. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $55.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $74.07.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $938.59 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $931.39 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.89 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Knife River Corporation will post 2.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Knife River

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor bought a new stake in Knife River in the second quarter worth $21,242,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Knife River by 5.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,464,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,579,000 after buying an additional 73,028 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Knife River by 19.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 392,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,050,000 after buying an additional 62,592 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in Knife River by 214.2% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 89,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,312,000 after buying an additional 61,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Knife River in the second quarter worth about $3,187,000. 80.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Knife River Company Profile

Knife River Corporation is a construction materials and contracting company headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. The company produces and sells construction aggregates, asphalt, ready-mix concrete and cement, and also provides related construction services for transportation, commercial, residential and industrial projects.

Its operations include aggregate mining and processing, asphalt and concrete production, paving, site development and other heavy-construction activities. Knife River serves public-sector and private-sector customers, including state and local governments, contractors, commercial developers and industrial businesses.

Knife River became an independent publicly traded company in 2023 after being spun off from MDU Resources Group.