Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) Shares Bought by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) by 2.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 385,294 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,351 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.50% of Kennametal worth $8,207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of KMT. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Kennametal by 13.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,543,973 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $61,106,000 after buying an additional 308,000 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Kennametal during the 4th quarter worth $5,543,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Kennametal by 32.7% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 469,202 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,270,000 after buying an additional 115,718 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Kennametal by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,134,051 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $123,319,000 after buying an additional 101,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Kennametal by 29.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 313,785 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $7,537,000 after purchasing an additional 71,346 shares during the last quarter.

Kennametal Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of Kennametal stock opened at $23.95 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $22.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.44 and a quick ratio of 1.10. Kennametal Inc. has a 52-week low of $17.30 and a 52-week high of $32.18. The firm has a market cap of $1.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 1.40.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.21. Kennametal had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 5.45%. The firm had revenue of $486.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $489.30 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Kennametal Inc. will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kennametal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. Kennametal’s payout ratio is currently 57.55%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on KMT. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Kennametal from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Kennametal from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Kennametal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Loop Capital reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $24.00 target price (up from $21.00) on shares of Kennametal in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.40.

Kennametal Company Profile

Kennametal Inc engages in development and application of tungsten carbides, ceramics, and super-hard materials and solutions for use in metal cutting and extreme wear applications to enable customers work against corrosion and high temperatures conditions worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Metal Cutting and Infrastructure.