Kadant (NYSE:KAI) Stock Rating Lowered by Zacks Research

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on KAI. DA Davidson set a $303.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Kadant from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Wall Street Zen raised Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a report on Monday, May 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $341.50.

Kadant Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of Kadant stock opened at $307.44 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $312.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $307.02. The company has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.06 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Kadant has a 1 year low of $244.87 and a 1 year high of $369.97.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $281.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company 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. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Kadant will post 12.5 EPS for the current year.

Kadant announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 21st that permits the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the industrial products company to repurchase up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Trading of Kadant

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Kadant by 13.7% in the 1st quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,038,548 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $303,619,000 after acquiring an additional 125,342 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Kadant by 76,036.6% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 738,525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $210,494,000 after acquiring an additional 737,555 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake 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 valued at $141,020,000 after acquiring an additional 178,563 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Kadant by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 456,721 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $130,175,000 after acquiring an additional 15,446 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Kadant by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 314,496 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $89,651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,294 shares during the last quarter. 96.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.