Bessemer Group Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Kadant Inc $KAI

Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) by 1,619.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 77,847 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 73,320 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Kadant were worth $22,188,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of KAI. CWM LLC raised its stake in Kadant by 102.3% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 87 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its stake in Kadant by 1,300.0% during the third quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 84 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Kadant during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in Kadant during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, First Horizon Corp purchased a new position in Kadant during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on KAI. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research report on Monday, May 4th. DA Davidson set a $303.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Kadant from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.50.

Kadant Price Performance

Kadant stock opened at $317.26 on Friday. Kadant Inc has a 52-week low of $244.87 and a 52-week high of $369.97. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $314.67 and a 200-day moving average of $306.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.18 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 5.18, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.73. Kadant had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 12.13%. The company had revenue of $281.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.95 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.10 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Kadant has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.880-2.980 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 12.330-12.680 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Kadant Inc will post 12.5 EPS for the current year.

Kadant Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th were issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 15th. This is a positive change from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.42%.

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.