Numerai GP LLC Buys Shares of 7,062 Kadant Inc $KAI

Numerai GP LLC purchased a new position in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 7,062 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,102,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in KAI. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Kadant during the second quarter worth $40,019,000. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Kadant by 54.6% in the 2nd 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Kadant by 141.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,703 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,670,000 after buying an additional 58,382 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its position in Kadant by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 984,193 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $312,432,000 after buying an additional 34,561 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Kadant by 163.8% during the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 55,036 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $16,374,000 after buying an additional 34,170 shares during the last quarter. 96.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KAI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. DA Davidson set a $303.00 price target on Kadant in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Kadant in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $341.50.

Kadant Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of KAI stock opened at $301.79 on Tuesday. Kadant Inc has a 12-month low of $244.87 and a 12-month high of $369.97. The company has a market capitalization of $3.56 billion, a PE ratio of 34.89 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $327.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $304.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

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

Kadant Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 13th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 15th will be issued a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. This is a positive change from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Kadant’s 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.