The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Purchases Shares of 41,870 Knowles Corporation $KN

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of Knowles Corporation (NYSE:KN) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 41,870 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,737,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its holdings in shares of Knowles by 35.9% in the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,151 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 304 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its stake in Knowles by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 76,098 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $1,954,000 after acquiring an additional 463 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in Knowles by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 16,612 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $356,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Knowles by 5.3% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 12,137 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $312,000 after acquiring an additional 609 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in Knowles by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 53,002 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,136,000 after acquiring an additional 638 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.35% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KN has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered Knowles from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday. Zacks Research raised Knowles from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Wall Street Zen cut Knowles from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 1st. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Knowles from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $44.00 price objective on Knowles in a research note on Friday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.67.

Insider Activity

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

Knowles Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KN opened at $34.71 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $36.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.39. Knowles Corporation has a 1-year low of $20.57 and a 1-year high of $42.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 3.20 and a quick ratio of 1.75. The company has a market cap of $2.96 billion, a PE ratio of 45.08 and a beta of 1.59.

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

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.