Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) Raises Dividend to $0.36 Per Share

Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 11th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.36 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, May 13th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 15th. This is a 5.9% increase from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34.

Kadant has raised its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Kadant has a dividend payout ratio of 13.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Kadant to earn $11.39 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.36 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.9%.

Kadant Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Kadant stock opened at $332.31 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $326.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $304.92. Kadant has a 12-month low of $244.87 and a 12-month high of $369.97. The company has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.42 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.38, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.61. The business had revenue of $286.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $274.43 million. Kadant had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 9.69%.The business’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.25 EPS. Kadant has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.780-1.880 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 10.500-10.750 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Kadant will post 9.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

KAI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Kadant in a research report on Monday, December 29th. DA Davidson set a $303.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $341.50.

Kadant Company Profile

Kadant Inc, headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, is a global supplier of high‐value, critical components and engineered systems for the pulp and paper industry and other process industries. The company’s product portfolio spans stock preparation technologies, refiners and pulpers, fluid handling systems, and web‐handling equipment designed to optimize the efficiency and quality of paper production. In addition to capital equipment, Kadant offers aftermarket services, including spare parts, maintenance programs and process optimization consulting, which together support long‐term customer productivity and reliability.

Originally part of a larger industrial conglomerate, Kadant was established as an independent public company in 1991.