Kadant (NYSE:KAI) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.42 EPS

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) posted its earnings results on Tuesday. The industrial products company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.96 by $0.42, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $248.98 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $245.56 million. Kadant had a net margin of 11.53% and a return on equity of 15.88%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.40 EPS.

Kadant Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of KAI stock traded up $5.83 on Friday, reaching $272.69. 100,194 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 96,800. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $308.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $282.19. The stock has a market cap of $3.20 billion, a PE ratio of 28.41 and a beta of 1.30. Kadant has a one year low of $186.95 and a one year high of $354.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.05 and a quick ratio of 1.34.

Kadant Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. This is a boost from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 9th. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.33%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on KAI shares. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Kadant in a report on Tuesday. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $360.00 target price on shares of Kadant in a report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Kadant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kadant news, Director Thomas C. Leonard sold 217 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total transaction of $70,266.77. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,587,814.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Kadant news, Director Thomas C. Leonard sold 217 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $323.81, for a total transaction of $70,266.77. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,587,814.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Jonathan W. Painter sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $330.25, for a total value of $2,311,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 7,615 shares in the company, valued at $2,514,853.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 8,798 shares of company stock worth $2,899,004 over the last three months. 1.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.