Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) Short Interest Update

Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) saw a large increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,390,000 shares, an increase of 6.9% from the December 15th total of 1,300,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 92,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 15.0 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barrington Research raised their price objective on Kadant from $360.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Kadant Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE KAI opened at $367.34 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.60 and a beta of 1.28. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $375.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $343.59. Kadant has a 52-week low of $249.51 and a 52-week high of $429.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $271.61 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $266.38 million. Kadant had a return on equity of 15.10% and a net margin of 11.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Kadant will post 10.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Kadant Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 6th. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be given a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.35%. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kadant

In other Kadant news, Director Thomas C. Leonard sold 152 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $398.21, for a total transaction of $60,527.92. Following the sale, the director now owns 4,250 shares in the company, valued at $1,692,392.50. This represents a 3.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Rebecca Martinez O’mara sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $392.59, for a total value of $117,777.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $507,618.87. This represents a 18.83 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,052 shares of company stock valued at $416,655 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of KAI. Erste Asset Management GmbH acquired a new position in shares of Kadant during the third quarter worth approximately $11,345,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in Kadant during the 3rd quarter valued at $11,206,000. DF Dent & Co. Inc. boosted its position in Kadant by 64.1% during the 3rd quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. now owns 83,163 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $28,109,000 after acquiring an additional 32,491 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Kadant by 34.8% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 122,624 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $41,447,000 after purchasing an additional 31,675 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Kadant by 60.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 64,722 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $21,876,000 after purchasing an additional 24,358 shares during the period. 96.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.