Look out for Insider Activity: Knowles Corp (KN)

Knowles Corp (NYSE:KN) insider has recently participated in insider trading activity. President & CEO, Niew Jeffrey bought 2,500 shares for $ 27,375 via one transaction Feb 17. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 182,277 shares in total, priced at $ 2008692.54 as of Thursday. Another notable insider trading was done by the same insider on Feb 16. Niew Jeffrey sold 941 shares at an average price of $ 9.68 for a total of $ 9,109. Moreover, Jankov Ronald Steven carried out a bought of 10,000 shares at $ 10.80 each on Feb 16. The transaction amounted to $ 108,000. Senior VP & CFO Anderson John S. sold 377 shares for $ 3,649 through one transaction Feb 16. Following this sale, this insider’s stake in the company comprises 40,679 shares, priced at $ 448282.58 as of Thursday.

The stock has experienced a total of 8 insider trades in the past three months. These trades include 6 sell activities and 2 buy trades. Furthermore, over the past 12 months, the stock was traded 42 times by insiders. In 19 of these trades, the insider was a seller while an employee of the company was the buyer in just 23 instances.

Knowles Corp (KN) on February 11, 2016 announced results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2015.

“We are pleased to report that Q4 revenue came in at the high-end of our original expectations,” said Jeffrey Niew, president and CEO of Knowles. “In our mobile consumer electronics segment, sales increased sequentially driven by strong demand from our largest customer early in the quarter, and improving trends with Chinese OEMs. Revenue from our specialty components segment was up 4 percent quarter over quarter driven by robust sales into the hearing health market. In addition, our Q4 non-GAAP gross margins expanded more than 800 basis points from Q1 levels highlighting the strength in our core business, and reflecting the benefits of higher utilization rates and an optimized manufacturing footprint.”

“We are also announcing our intent to sell the speaker and receiver product line in our mobile consumer electronics segment,” stated Niew. “While we’ve made operational improvements to this product line over the past several years, we do not believe this electro-mechanical business can leverage our long-term investment in semiconductor and software design capabilities. By exiting this product line, we anticipate meaningful improvements to our overall gross and operating margins while reducing capex intensity and improving free cash flow.”

“As we enter 2016, we plan to focus on businesses where we believe we have strong competitive advantage to sustain long-term revenue growth. We expect our leading position in microphones, intelligent audio and hearing health, combined with stable sales of precision devices will drive top-line growth and strong operating margins in the future.”