Kadant (NYSE:KAI) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Zacks Research

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

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on KAI. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $380.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a research note on Monday, May 4th. DA Davidson set a $303.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Kadant from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. One equities research 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 an average target price of $341.50.

Kadant Price Performance

KAI stock opened at $307.44 on Wednesday. The firm 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 quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Kadant has a 12-month low of $244.87 and a 12-month high of $369.97. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $312.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $307.02.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.73. The firm had revenue of $281.51 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $274.95 million. Kadant had a return on equity of 12.13% and a net margin of 9.45%.The business’s revenue was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business 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. On average, analysts expect that Kadant will post 12.5 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Kadant by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 254 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $75,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Kadant by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 374 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $107,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Kadant by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 6,120 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,789,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its holdings in shares of Kadant by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 1,732 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $494,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in Kadant by 102.3% in the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 87 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

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.