Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.36 Per Share

Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 11th. Stockholders 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 is Wednesday, April 15th. This is a 5.9% increase from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34.

Kadant has increased its dividend by an average of 0.1%annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 12 years. Kadant has a payout ratio of 13.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Price Performance

Kadant stock opened at $332.31 on Thursday. Kadant has a 12-month low of $244.87 and a 12-month high of $369.97. The company has a current ratio of 2.38, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $326.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $304.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a PE ratio of 38.42 and a beta of 1.22.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.61. The company had revenue of $286.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.43 million. Kadant had a net margin of 9.69% and a return on equity of 11.57%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $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. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Kadant will post 9.97 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Kadant

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of KAI. M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Kadant by 76,036.6% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 738,525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,494,000 after purchasing an additional 737,555 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings 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 worth $141,020,000 after buying an additional 178,563 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kadant in the 4th quarter worth $42,985,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Kadant by 54.6% during the 2nd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 248,632 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $78,928,000 after buying an additional 87,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Kadant by 1,619.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 77,847 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $22,188,000 after buying an additional 73,320 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

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.