Kadant’s (KAI) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at William Blair

William Blair restated their outperform rating on shares of Kadant (NYSE:KAI) in a report released on Tuesday morning, Zacks.com reports. William Blair also issued estimates for Kadant’s Q2 2024 earnings at $2.47 EPS, Q3 2024 earnings at $2.66 EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at $2.54 EPS and FY2024 earnings at $10.05 EPS.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on KAI. Barrington Research reissued an outperform rating and set a $360.00 target price on shares of Kadant in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Kadant from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th.

Kadant Stock Up 2.2 %

NYSE:KAI traded up $5.83 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $272.69. 100,194 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 96,800. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $308.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $282.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Kadant has a fifty-two week low of $186.95 and a fifty-two week high of $354.02. The company has a market capitalization of $3.20 billion, a PE ratio of 28.41 and a beta of 1.30.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.96 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $248.98 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $245.56 million. Kadant had a return on equity of 15.88% and a net margin of 11.53%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.40 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Kadant will post 9.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kadant Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.47%. This is a positive change from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 9th. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.33%.

Insider Transactions at Kadant

In other news, Director Thomas C. Leonard sold 217 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total value of $70,266.77. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,587,814.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Kadant news, Director Thomas C. Leonard sold 217 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total transaction of $70,266.77. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,587,814.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Jonathan W. Painter sold 7,000 shares of Kadant stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $2,311,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,514,853.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 8,798 shares of company stock valued at $2,899,004. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Kadant by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 66,615 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $15,025,000 after purchasing an additional 852 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Kadant by 17.5% in the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 154,252 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,792,000 after buying an additional 22,978 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Kadant in the third quarter valued at $695,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Kadant by 24.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,713 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $837,000 after acquiring an additional 728 shares during the period. Finally, West Coast Financial LLC grew its position in shares of Kadant by 0.3% during the third quarter. West Coast Financial LLC now owns 30,657 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,915,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. 96.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Kadant Company Profile

Kadant Inc supplies technologies and engineered systems worldwide. It operates in three segments: Flow Control, Industrial Processing, and Material Handling. The Flow Control segment develops, manufactures, and markets fluid-handling systems and equipment, such as rotary joints, syphons, turbulator bars, expansion joints, and engineered steam and condensate systems; and doctoring, cleaning, and filtration systems and related consumables consisting of doctor systems and holders, doctor blades, cleaning shower and fabric-conditioning systems, forming systems and wear surfaces, and water-filtration systems.