Legato Capital Management LLC Invests $654,000 in Kadant Inc $KAI

Legato Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 2,295 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $654,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Kadant by 141.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,703 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,670,000 after purchasing an additional 58,382 shares during the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in shares of Kadant during the third quarter worth $1,500,000. Zhang Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Kadant during the third quarter worth $1,515,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in shares of Kadant by 16.5% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 43,246 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,326,000 after purchasing an additional 6,123 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Kadant by 14.5% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 45,926 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $13,667,000 after purchasing an additional 5,813 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KAI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 target price on shares of Kadant in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Kadant from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. DA Davidson set a $303.00 target price on Kadant in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Kadant from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $341.50.

Kadant Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of KAI opened at $329.97 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $312.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $308.03. The stock has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a PE ratio of 37.62 and a beta of 1.19. Kadant Inc has a 12 month low of $244.87 and a 12 month high of $369.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.53.

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

Kadant Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 16th will be paid 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 is Thursday, July 16th. Kadant’s payout ratio is currently 16.42%.

Kadant declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the industrial products company to buy up to 1.4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Kadant 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.