Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Invests $1.14 Million in Kadant Inc $KAI

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 4,012 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,144,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of Kadant by 76,036.6% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 738,525 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $210,494,000 after buying an additional 737,555 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Kadant by 1,619.6% during the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 77,847 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $22,188,000 after buying an additional 73,320 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Kadant by 141.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 99,703 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,670,000 after buying an additional 58,382 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Kadant by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 216,204 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $61,623,000 after buying an additional 47,506 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wasatch Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Kadant by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 984,193 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $312,432,000 after buying an additional 34,561 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on KAI shares. Barrington Research restated an “outperform” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Kadant from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Zacks Research cut shares of Kadant from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. DA Davidson set a $303.00 target price on Kadant in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Kadant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $341.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kadant

In other news, SVP Stacy D. Krause sold 1,227 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $334.17, for a total transaction of $410,026.59. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 1,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $455,473.71. This represents a 47.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Kadant Stock Down 3.1%

Shares of KAI opened at $321.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.70 and a beta of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $308.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.53. Kadant Inc has a 1 year low of $244.87 and a 1 year high of $369.97.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.73. The business had revenue of $281.51 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.95 million. Kadant had a return on equity of 12.13% and a net margin of 9.45%.Kadant’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.10 earnings per share. 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 forecast that Kadant Inc will post 12.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kadant Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 16th will be paid a $0.36 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 16th. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.42%.

Kadant announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the industrial products company to reacquire up to 1.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Kadant Profile

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.