Is KN a high-quality business?

AlphaMadera's AlphaQuality grade scores Knowles Corporation on six pillars — profitability, capital efficiency, balance-sheet strength, growth durability, cash generation, and shareholder yield. The composite letter grade reflects how KN compares to a Buffett-style quality bar.

What is Knowles Corporation's AlphaQuality grade?

AlphaQuality assigns a letter grade (A through F) to KN based on a six-pillar quantitative model. The live page shows the composite grade plus each pillar's individual score with the underlying metrics.

What makes KN a quality stock?

AlphaQuality looks at return on capital, free-cash-flow margins, debt-to-equity, revenue stability, dividend and buyback policy, and operating-margin trend. Stocks scoring well across all six pillars earn higher grades — the methodology favors compounders over cyclicals.

KN - Knowles Corporation

Price: -- -- | CONSENSUS: Buy DETAILS | PRICE TARGET: $40.67 DETAILS

AlphaQuality

Quantitative six-pillar business-quality grade

Stable Earnings Power

AlphaQuality — archetype-weighted quantitative grade

F 30.0 / 100 pillar composite

Composite Grade

Composite of six pillars weighted for stable earnings power businesses. Purely quantitative — the six pillars score only reported financials, no analyst input.

⚠ 2 of the last 5 fiscal years showed negative net income — AlphaQuality will not grade above F for persistent unprofitability in a stable earnings power business.

Grade overrides the 30.0 pillar composite because hard gates always win. Use the pillar breakdown below to see where the underlying numbers sit.

Profitability

Weight: 20%

D- 31.7

5yr Avg ROIC 5.3% 36/100
Operating Margin Trend -0.98 pp/yr 21/100

Capital Efficiency

Weight: 15%

D- 28.6

5yr Avg ROE -10.4% 0/100
5yr Share-Count CAGR -1.2% 82/100

Growth Quality

Weight: 15%

C 51.6

5yr Revenue CAGR -4.9% 10/100
5yr EPS CAGR 74.2% 100/100
Revenue-Growth Years (5) 3/5 60/100

Cash Generation

Weight: 15%

A 88.6

5yr FCF Margin 16.9% 85/100
5yr FCF/NI Conversion 1.40x 93/100

Balance Sheet

Weight: 20%

A- 86.8

Net Debt / EBITDA 0.88x 86/100
Interest Coverage (EBIT/Int) 7.88x 77/100
Altman Z-Score 6.45 100/100

Stability

Weight: 15%

C- 49.2

EPS Volatility (σ/μ) 0.67 17/100
Negative-Revenue Years (5) 2/5 60/100
Piotroski F-Score 8 89/100

2 of 3 gurus held; 1 added; 1 trimmed; 2 full exits.

Holders: 2 -1
Avg Δ position: +5.9%
New buys: 0
Full exits: 2

Laffont sold -100%
Wood sold -100%
Cooperman increased +58%

How this is calculated

AlphaQuality grades six pillars from 0-100 and weights each by archetype:

Profitability (20%) — 5yr Avg ROIC, Operating Margin Trend
Capital Efficiency (15%) — 5yr Avg ROE, 5yr Share-Count CAGR
Growth Quality (15%) — 5yr Revenue CAGR, 5yr EPS CAGR, Revenue-Growth Years (5)
Cash Generation (15%) — 5yr FCF Margin, 5yr FCF/NI Conversion
Balance Sheet (20%) — Net Debt / EBITDA, Interest Coverage (EBIT/Int), Altman Z-Score
Stability (15%) — EPS Volatility (σ/μ), Negative-Revenue Years (5), Piotroski F-Score

The six pillars read only reported financial-statement fields — no analyst targets or consensus ratings. The archetype that picks which pillar formulas apply is not fully price-free, though: it can route a company to the distressed/ungradable archetype based on price vs. its 52-week high, and beta affects one classification check. A minimum of 5 fiscal years of audited statements is required. Insurers and banks are graded on their own methodology — insurers on loss ratio, its trend and stability, and premiums-to-surplus; banks on the efficiency ratio, its trend and stability, and equity-to-assets — rather than on industrial margin/ROIC signals. Distressed, highly leveraged infrastructure, asset-manager, and other financial businesses are declared ungradable rather than forced into a numeric score.