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Knowles

KN on NYSE. Knowles sells specialty electronic components to medtech, defense, industrial, and energy markets. Market value $3.4bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Some use the latest annual report instead, as marked. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Cash flow or capital spending isn't reported, so free cash flow is unknown.

Should I look at this?

Not a fit for our list right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See Technology stocks that passed both tests

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
annual report to December 2025
n/a

We could not compute this from the filings.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
37.2×full

You pay 37.2 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
6.2%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 6 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 54 of 100. Price score: 27 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$39.19 a share, 91% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $20.57 to $42.93.

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
20212022202320242025
Revenue
$868m$479m$457m$554m$593m
Operating margin
13.3%19.0%9.5%9.4%11.9%
Debt to equity
0.050.050.310.370.15
Shares outstanding
0.09bn0.09bn0.09bn0.09bn0.09bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positiveNot enough data
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)7 of 7 checks we could run
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Not enough data
  • Debt0.15× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsShrinking, 4.9% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 6% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $167 million last quarter, up 14% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $19 million, up 149% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 15 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 9 cents a year earlier.
  • About the same number of shares as a year ago.
  • Debt is $81 million more than cash, down from $87 million a year ago.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$143m
December 2024Not reported
March 2025$132m
June 2025$146m
September 2025$153m
December 2025$162m
March 2026$153m
June 2026$167m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$500,000
December 2024$19m
March 2025-$2m
June 2025$8m
September 2025$17m
December 2025$21m
March 2026$10m
June 2026$19m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
9 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
27 October 2026

Who owns it

7 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 6 last quarter. 342 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

6 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 8 sold $28m, $16m of it under preset trading plans.

  • SHAVERS CHERYL L
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    6,618
    Price
    $39.27
    Value
    $259,891
  • Niew Jeffrey
    President & CEO, Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    14 August 2026
    Shares
    6,951
    Price
    $38.00
    Value
    $264,138
  • Niew Jeffrey
    President & CEO, Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    13 August 2026
    Shares
    43,049
    Price
    $38.69
    Value
    $2m
  • Anderson John S.
    Senior Vice President & CFO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    13 August 2026
    Shares
    10,000
    Price
    $38.84
    Value
    $388,400
  • Niew Jeffrey
    President & CEO, Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    12 August 2026
    Shares
    150,000
    Price
    $39.07
    Value
    $6m
  • Anderson John S.
    Senior Vice President & CFO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    12 August 2026
    Shares
    30,000
    Price
    $39.07
    Value
    $1m
  • Cabrera Raymond D.
    SVP, Chief HR Officer
    Sold
    Date
    27 July 2026
    Shares
    6,178
    Price
    $36.28
    Value
    $224,138
  • Giesecke Daniel J.
    Senior Vice President & COO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    27 May 2026
    Shares
    20,201
    Price
    $37.32
    Value
    $753,903
  • Niew Jeffrey
    President & CEO, Director
    Sold
    Date
    5 May 2026
    Shares
    142,857
    Price
    $33.25
    Value
    $5m
  • Bastarrica Air A. Jr.
    Vice President, Controller
    Sold
    Date
    30 April 2026
    Shares
    3,623
    Price
    $30.91
    Value
    $111,987

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 9 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 28 Jul 2026 and 4 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

  • Sales have shrunk: 4.9% a year.
  • It isn't cheap on profits: 37.2× operating profit.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Create a free account to run it

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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.