5,358 Shares in Kadant Inc $KAI Bought by Magnetar Financial LLC

Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 5,358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,594,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Kadant by 54.6% during the second quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 248,632 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $78,928,000 after buying an additional 87,832 shares during the last quarter. Advantage Alpha Capital Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Kadant in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,745,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Kadant by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 279,013 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $88,583,000 after acquiring an additional 4,162 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in Kadant by 6.8% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 78,079 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $24,786,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS purchased a new stake in Kadant during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,327,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Kadant in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $303.00 target price on Kadant in a research note on Friday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Kadant has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $341.50.

Kadant Stock Performance

Shares of KAI opened at $322.14 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 2.38. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $327.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $305.04. The stock has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.24 and a beta of 1.22. Kadant Inc has a one year low of $244.87 and a one year high of $369.97.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The industrial products company reported $2.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.61. Kadant had a return on equity of 11.57% and a net margin of 9.69%.The business had revenue of $286.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.43 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.25 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. 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, research analysts predict that Kadant Inc will post 9.97 EPS for the current year.

Kadant Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be issued a $0.36 dividend. This is a boost from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.72%.

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.