Kadant (NYSE:KAI) Stock Rating Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

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

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. DA Davidson increased their target price on Kadant from $306.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Kadant from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Kadant currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $357.50.

Kadant Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of KAI stock opened at $293.96 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $274.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $306.05. Kadant has a 1 year low of $244.87 and a 1 year high of $354.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 8.58 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.66 and a beta of 1.19.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 3rd. The industrial products company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.64. Kadant had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 14.05%. The firm had revenue of $313.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $302.03 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.59 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Kadant will post 12.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Kadant Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 15th will be issued a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Kadant’s payout ratio is presently 14.53%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kadant

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Kadant during the 2nd quarter worth $565,205,000. Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Kadant by 85.8% in the second quarter. Grandeur Peak Global Advisors LLC now owns 211,036 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $66,314,000 after acquiring an additional 97,433 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Kadant by 21.6% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 118,248 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,570,000 after acquiring an additional 21,038 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Kadant in the second quarter worth about $28,773,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Kadant during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,923,000. 96.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Kadant

Kadant Inc (NYSE: KAI) is a global supplier of technologies and equipment used in the pulp and paper, recycling, and industrial processing industries. The company designs and manufactures products that help customers process fiber, manage fluids, improve production efficiency, and handle industrial materials.

Its offerings include systems and equipment for stock preparation, paper-machine cleaning, doctoring, filtration, water management, and fluid-handling applications. Kadant also provides material-handling and conveying equipment, as well as products used in recycling and other industrial processes.