Knife River (NYSE:KNF) Stock Gets Downgrade from Zacks Research

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) was downgraded by investment analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report issued on Monday, Zacks reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Citigroup downgraded shares of Knife River to a “cautious” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. B. Riley Financial lowered 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. Weiss Ratings lowered Knife River from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday, November 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Knife River from $73.00 to $63.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Knife River from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Knife River has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.29.

Knife River Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KNF opened at $58.29 on Monday. Knife River has a 1-year low of $47.79 and a 1-year high of $96.28. The company has a market cap of $3.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 1.81. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $54.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $73.35.

Knife River (NYSE:KNF) last released its quarterly earnings data 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). The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.30 billion. Knife River had a return on equity of 8.22% and a net margin of 3.98%. Knife River’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.52 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Knife River will post 2.40 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Knife River

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in KNF. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Knife River by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,464,690 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,579,000 after acquiring an additional 73,028 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Knife River by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 392,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,050,000 after purchasing an additional 62,592 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor acquired a new stake in Knife River in the 2nd quarter worth $21,242,000. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its holdings in shares of Knife River by 8.8% during the 1st quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 123,530 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,086,000 after purchasing an additional 9,990 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Knife River by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 112,098 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,153,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. 80.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Knife River Company Profile

Knife River Corporation is an aggregates-based construction materials and contracting company headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota. It produces and sells construction materials, including crushed stone, sand and gravel, ready-mix concrete, asphalt and cement. The company also provides construction services such as asphalt paving, road building, site development and underground utility work. Its operations serve customers across parts of the western, northwestern and central United States, including public agencies and commercial customers.