Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $1.52 Million Position in Kadant Inc $KAI

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,520,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in KAI. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Kadant by 141.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,703 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,670,000 after acquiring an additional 58,382 shares in the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL bought a new position in Kadant in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,500,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Kadant in the 4th quarter worth about $1,144,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in Kadant by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 43,246 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,326,000 after purchasing an additional 6,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Kadant by 44.8% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,846 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,989,000 after purchasing an additional 15,111 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on KAI. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Kadant from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Kadant from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Kadant currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $341.50.

Kadant Price Performance

NYSE KAI opened at $308.63 on Friday. Kadant Inc has a one year low of $244.87 and a one year high of $369.97. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $311.62 and a 200 day moving average of $314.26. The company has a market capitalization of $3.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.19 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.47.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $281.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.95 million. Kadant had a return on equity of 12.13% and a net margin of 9.45%.Kadant’s revenue was up 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.10 EPS. Kadant has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.880-2.980 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 12.330-12.680 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Kadant Inc will post 12.42 EPS for the current year.

Kadant Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 16th. Kadant’s payout ratio is presently 16.42%.

Kadant announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the industrial products company to purchase up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Stacy D. Krause sold 1,227 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $334.17, for a total transaction of $410,026.59. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 1,363 shares in the company, valued at $455,473.71. This represents a 47.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Kadant

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.