Cetera Investment Advisers Acquires 40 Shares of Kadant Inc $KAI

Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) by 5.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 760 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Kadant were worth $256,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in KAI. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Kadant by 97.9% in the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 221,209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $74,528,000 after acquiring an additional 109,439 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Kadant by 150,885.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 81,532 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,469,000 after acquiring an additional 81,478 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Kadant by 809.9% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 64,893 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $21,863,000 after buying an additional 57,761 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Kadant by 71.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 79,631 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,829,000 after buying an additional 33,084 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Kadant by 20.0% during the 4th quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 156,358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,985,000 after buying an additional 26,067 shares during the period. 96.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

KAI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Kadant from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 5th. DA Davidson lifted their price target on Kadant from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Barrington Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price target on shares of Kadant in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $340.00.

Kadant Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KAI opened at $330.9970 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a PE ratio of 36.86 and a beta of 1.24. Kadant Inc has a fifty-two week low of $281.30 and a fifty-two week high of $429.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 2.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $327.73 and a 200-day moving average of $332.39.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The industrial products company reported $2.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.37. The company had revenue of $255.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $245.99 million. Kadant had a return on equity of 12.62% and a net margin of 10.34%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.81 earnings per share. Kadant has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 2.130-2.230 EPS. FY 2025 guidance at 9.050-9.250 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Kadant Inc will post 9.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Kadant declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the industrial products company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About Kadant

Kadant Inc supplies technologies and engineered systems worldwide. It operates in three segments: Flow Control, Industrial Processing, and Material Handling. The Flow Control segment develops, manufactures, and markets fluid-handling systems and equipment, such as rotary joints, syphons, turbulator bars, expansion joints, and engineered steam and condensate systems; and doctoring, cleaning, and filtration systems and related consumables consisting of doctor systems and holders, doctor blades, cleaning shower and fabric-conditioning systems, forming systems and wear surfaces, and water-filtration systems.