Kadant (NYSE:KAI) SVP Stacy Krause Sells 1,227 Shares of Stock

Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) SVP Stacy Krause sold 1,227 shares of Kadant 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 1,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $455,473.71. The trade was a 47.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Kadant Stock Up 1.2%

NYSE KAI opened at $333.38 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Kadant Inc has a 1-year low of $244.87 and a 1-year high of $369.97. The company has a 50 day moving average of $313.33 and a 200-day moving average of $308.49. The company has a market cap of $3.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.01 and a beta of 1.19.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $274.95 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.10 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. 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, equities research analysts expect that Kadant Inc will post 12.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kadant announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 21st that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the industrial products company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Kadant Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 16th. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio is 16.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kadant

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Kadant by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,038,548 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $303,619,000 after purchasing an additional 125,342 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp boosted its stake in shares of Kadant by 76,036.6% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 738,525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $210,494,000 after purchasing an additional 737,555 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Kadant by 56.5% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 494,773 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $141,020,000 after purchasing an additional 178,563 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Kadant by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 456,721 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $130,175,000 after purchasing an additional 15,446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Kadant by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 314,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,651,000 after purchasing an additional 2,294 shares in the last quarter. 96.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

KAI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Kadant from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Kadant from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. DA Davidson set a $303.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a report on Monday, May 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Kadant currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $341.50.

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.