Kadant (NYSE:KAI) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Kadant (NYSE:KAI) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

KAI has been the subject of a number of other research reports. DA Davidson set a $303.00 target price on shares of Kadant in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $380.00 target price on shares of Kadant in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Kadant in a research note on Friday, March 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.50.

Kadant Stock Performance

Shares of KAI stock opened at $339.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $316.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $305.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 8.91 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market cap of $4.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.65 and a beta of 1.19. Kadant has a one year low of $244.87 and a one year high of $369.97.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.73. The company had revenue of $281.51 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $274.95 million. Kadant had a net margin of 9.45% and a return on equity of 12.13%. Kadant’s quarterly revenue was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $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. As a group, equities analysts predict that Kadant will post 12.55 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 given a dividend of $0.36 per share. This is a positive change from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 15th. Kadant’s payout ratio is 16.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kadant

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in Kadant by 13.7% during the first quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,038,548 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $303,619,000 after acquiring an additional 125,342 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp increased its position in Kadant by 76,036.6% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 738,525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,494,000 after acquiring an additional 737,555 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in Kadant by 56.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 494,773 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $141,020,000 after acquiring an additional 178,563 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Kadant by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 456,721 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $130,175,000 after acquiring an additional 15,446 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Kadant by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 314,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $89,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,294 shares during the period. 96.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.