Stephens Issues Positive Forecast for Knife River (NYSE:KNF) Stock Price

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) had its target price boosted by Stephens from $65.00 to $70.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the stock. Stephens‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 14.68% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank Of Canada cut Knife River from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $103.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 9th. DA Davidson began coverage on shares of Knife River in a research report on Monday, August 24th. They set a “buy” rating and a $85.00 price objective for the company. B. Riley Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Knife River from $105.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 25th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Knife River from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 24th. 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 analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.86.

Knife River Price Performance

NYSE:KNF opened at $61.04 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 2.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $55.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $73.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.40. Knife River has a 12-month low of $47.79 and a 12-month high of $96.28.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The company reported $2.43 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.58 by ($0.15). Knife River had a return on equity of 8.22% and a net margin of 3.98%. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Knife River will post 2.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Knife River

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KNF. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Knife River by 49.2% in the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. William Mack & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Knife River during the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Knife River by 40.6% during the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 3,986 shares of the company’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 1,151 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Knife River by 267.1% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 601 shares during the period. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Knife River by 26.4% in the third quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 4,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $202,000 after acquiring an additional 836 shares during the period. 80.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.