Knife River (NYSE:KNF) Stock Gets Price Target Bump from Royal Bank Of Canada

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at Royal Bank Of Canada from $58.00 to $59.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “sector perform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada‘s price target points to a potential upside of 4.59% from the company’s previous close.

KNF has been the subject of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Knife River from $90.00 to $80.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Wolfe Research upgraded Knife River from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 27th. Stephens upped their price objective on Knife River from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective 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. Finally, B. Riley Financial cut their price objective on Knife River from $105.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.29.

Knife River Stock Performance

Knife River stock traded down $0.84 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $56.41. 821,218 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 718,331. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 2.66. Knife River has a 12-month low of $47.79 and a 12-month high of $96.28. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $54.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $73.54. The stock has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.40.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The company reported $2.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.58 by ($0.15). Knife River had a net margin of 4.23% and a return on equity of 8.73%. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.52 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Knife River will post 2.40 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KNF. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in Knife River during the second quarter worth $3,187,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Knife River by 19.0% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 392,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,050,000 after acquiring an additional 62,592 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP lifted its position in shares of Knife River by 647.7% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 33,783 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 29,265 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Knife River by 214.2% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 89,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,312,000 after acquiring an additional 61,053 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor acquired a new stake in shares of Knife River during the second quarter valued at $21,242,000. 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.