Kadant Q3 2025 Earnings Results & Report

Kadant EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $2.59
• Consensus EPS: $2.18
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.41
• One Year Ago EPS: $2.84
• EPS Beat Rate: 8 of last 8 quarters

Kadant Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $271.57 million
• Expected Revenue: $260.17 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$11.40 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Kadant (NYSE:KAI). (NYSE: KAI) is a global supplier of technologies and equipment used in the manufacturing, processing, and handling of industrial materials. The company primarily serves the pulp and paper industry, while also providing products for other process industries.

Kadant’s products include equipment for stock preparation, fiber processing, paper-machine cleaning and doctoring, water-management systems, filtration, fluid handling, drying, and material conveying. Its solutions are designed to improve production efficiency, manage water and process fluids, recover and recycle materials, and support the operation of paper and other industrial processing facilities.

The company serves customers through operations and sales channels in North America, Europe, Asia, and other international markets. Kadant was established as an independent public company after being spun off from Thermo Electron Corporation in 1997. Its portfolio has expanded through organic development and acquisitions, and the company is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey L. Powell.

Kadant Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Record aftermarket parts revenue (69% of Q3 sales) drove higher gross margin and strong cash generation, with operating cash flow of $47.3M and free cash flow of $44.1M.
• Negative Sentiment: Capital equipment demand remains weak and several large orders were pushed into Q4/early‑2026, weighing on Q3 capital shipments and contributing to a year-over-year decline in adjusted EPS to $2.59.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management completed two acquisitions (Babini and Clyde Industries) that will add about $23M of combined revenue in Q4 but are modestly dilutive in the quarter (≈$0.06) after interest; company expects Clyde to fit well with industrial processing long term.
• Positive Sentiment: Liquidity and balance-sheet flexibility improved as the revolver was increased to $750M, net debt fell to $131.1M, and cash rose to $126.9M, supporting the company’s acquisition strategy.

Presentation

[Operator]

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Kadant's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host, Mr. Michael McKenney, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Thank you, Livia. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Kadant's third quarter 2025 earnings call. With me on the call today is Jeff Powell, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Before we begin, let me read our Safe Harbor statement. Various remarks that we may make today about Kadant's future plans and expectations, financial and operating results, and prospects are forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those outlined at the beginning of our slide presentation and those discussed under the heading Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2024, and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements we make during this webcast represent our views and estimates only as of today. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our views or estimates change. During this webcast, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP measures are not prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

A reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is contained in our third quarter earnings press release and the slides presented on the webcast and discussed in the conference call, which are available in the Investor section of our website at Kadant.com. Finally, I wanted to note that when we refer to GAAP earnings per share or EPS and adjusted EPS on this call, we are referring to each of these measures as calculated on a diluted basis. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jeff Powell, who will give you an update on Kadant's business and future prospects. Following Jeffrey's remarks, I'll give an overview of our financial results for the quarter, and we'll then have a Q&A session. Jeff?

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Thanks, Mike. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us this morning to review our third quarter results and discuss our outlook for the remainder of the year. I'll begin with our third quarter highlights. We had solid earnings performance in the third quarter and benefited from record aftermarket parts revenue. As you know, our aftermarket parts business is one of our core strategic development areas, and it is encouraging to see this part of our business continue to thrive. This is especially true in volatile times like now, where economic headwinds are strong and global trade tensions remain high. Overall, market demand for capital equipment continues to be sluggish, though we are seeing increasing activity early in the fourth quarter. As has been the case throughout 2025, our operations teams around the world delivered exceptional value for our customers.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

I want to thank them for their outstanding effort and the results they generated during these challenging times. Turning next to slide six, I'd like to review our Q3 financial performance. Q3 revenue and earnings performance continued to improve sequentially in Q1, Q2, despite softness in our capital business. Revenue was flat compared to the prior year period at $272 million and benefited from record aftermarket parts business, which was up 6% compared to the third quarter of last year. Solid execution contributed to an adjusted EBITDA of $58 million and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 21.4%. Cash flow from operations and free cash flow in the third quarter was $47 million and $44 million, respectively, demonstrating the continued strength of our business models.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Bookings were relatively flat compared to the same period last year, due entirely to a sustained weakness in capital project orders, which has been in a lull since 2023. While capital project activity and quoting remains high, the timing of these capital projects continues to get pushed out. That said, we do see greater optimism in our sales teams with respect to capital orders moving forward in the near term. Next, I'd like to review the performance of our operating segments, beginning with our flow control segment. Good performance in aftermarket parts revenue could not offset reduced capital shipments in the third quarter, leading to a 3% decline in Q3 revenue compared to last year. Encouragingly, new order activity was up 5%, with aftermarket and capital demand both contributing to this increase to $94 million.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Adjusted EBITDA of $26 million was down 10% compared to the record EBITDA performance in the third quarter of last year. Factory automation and general industrial end markets continue to show strength, particularly in the Americas, while capital project activity in Europe and Asia reflects the persistent economic headwinds in those regions. In our industrial processing segment, revenue decreased 4% to $106 million. The revenue decline was entirely due to reduced capital shipments, as aftermarket parts revenue was a record $81 million and represents 76% of total Q3 revenue. Solid demand for aftermarket parts was not enough to offset the decline in capital bookings, leading to a 5% decrease in bookings compared to the same period last year. The outlook for capital bookings in the near term remains positive, and we are well-positioned to win those new orders when they are released.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Adjusted EBITDA margin in the third quarter was 25.4%, down 330 basis points compared to the record margin set in Q3 of last year. I should note that our third quarter results do not include any contribution from our recently announced acquisition of Clyde Industries, as that acquisition was completed after the third quarter closed. The acquisition will be included in our fourth quarter results, and we look forward to reporting on the integration in the next call. In our material handling segment, we benefited from excellent commercial and operational execution in the third quarter. Revenue was up 11% to a record $70 million, with solid increases from both product lines. This record revenue performance was led by capital shipments, up 18% compared to the same period last year.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Bookings declined 4% compared to the third quarter of last year, due largely to softer demand for aftermarket parts for our bulk material handling equipment during the quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 290 basis points to a record 23.3% compared to Q3 of last year. While we expect demand to stabilize in the near term, we continue to see a good level of activity in the aggregate sector, particularly in North America. As we look ahead to the remainder of 2025, we expect aftermarket demand to remain healthy and business activity to improve. We are seeing a lot of activity around capital projects, and this is expected to be a meaningful contributor to our Q4 new order activity, though the timing of these projects can be uncertain and could shift due to macroeconomic uncertainty or other factors.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

I will now pass the call over to Mike for his review of our Q2, Q3 financial performance. Mike.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Thank you, Jeff. I'll start with some key financial metrics from our third quarter. Our third quarter revenue of $271.6 million included record aftermarket parts revenue of $188.4 million. Gross margin was 45.2% in the third quarter of 2025, up 50 basis points compared to 44.7% in the third quarter of 2024. Our parts and consumable revenue increased to 69% of revenue in the third quarter of 2025 compared to 65% in the prior year. Gross margin included amortization expense associated with acquired profit and inventory of $0.5 million and $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2025 and 2024, respectively. Excluding this negative impact in both periods, gross margin was up 10 basis points over the third quarter of 2024.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

For the first nine months of 2025, gross margin increased 120 basis points over the corresponding prior year period and 70 basis points after excluding the impact of acquired profit and inventory in both periods. This demonstrates our ability to maintain our gross margin profile despite various cost pressures, including the recent tariff challenges. SG&A expenses, as a percentage of revenue, increased to 27.9% in the third quarter of 2025 compared to 25.4% in the prior year period. SG&A expenses.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. Your conference call will resume momentarily.

[Operator]

Livia?

[Operator]

Speaker, is your mic on?

[Operator]

Yes, can you hear us now?

[Operator]

Yes, you may resume. We're

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

I think we'll start from the beginning of my comments, and I'll say that. Okay? Livia? Livia?

[Operator]

Go ahead.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Okay. Hi, folks. Apparently, we had an audio problem, and the audio dropped during my comments. This is Mike McKenney, the CFO. I am going to start my comments from the beginning again. I'll start with some key financial metrics from our third quarter. Our third quarter revenue of $271.6 million included record aftermarket parts revenue of $188.4 million. Gross margin was 45.2% in the third quarter of 2025, up 50 basis points compared to 44.7% in the third quarter of 2024. Our parts and consumables revenue increased to 69% of revenue in the third quarter of 2025 compared to 65% in the prior year. Gross margin included amortization expense associated with acquired profit and inventory of $0.5 million and $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2025 and 2024, respectively.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Excluding this negative impact in both periods, gross margin was up 10 basis points over the third quarter of 2024. For the first nine months of 2025, gross margin increased 120 basis points over the corresponding prior year period and 70 basis points after excluding the impact of acquired profit and inventory in both periods. This demonstrates our ability to maintain our gross margin profile despite various cost pressures, including the recent tariff challenges. SG&A expenses, as a percentage of revenue, increased to 27.9% in the third quarter of 2025 compared to 25.4% in the prior year period. SG&A expenses were $75.8 million in the third quarter of 2025, increasing $6.8 million compared to $69 million in the third quarter of 2024. This includes $1.2 million from unfavorable foreign currency translation, $1.3 million in acquisition-related costs, and $0.8 million from our recent acquisition.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

The remaining increase is primarily associated with incremental compensation-related costs. Our GAAP EPS decreased 12% to $2.35 in the third quarter, and our adjusted EPS decreased 9% to $2.59 in the third quarter of 2025 compared to a record $2.84 in the third quarter of 2024. The third quarter of 2025 adjusted EPS exceeded the high end of our guidance range by $0.36 due to higher-than-expected aftermarket parts revenue at our industrial processing segment. In addition, all of our segments had higher-than-expected gross margins due to the mix of aftermarket parts in the period. Our effective tax rate of 29.5% in the third quarter was higher than the anticipated rate, primarily due to the shift in geographic distribution of earnings expected for the year and an increase in non-deductible acquisition costs.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Our adjusted EBITDA has increased each quarter in 2025 with strong performance in the third quarter from our material handling segment. However, overall, our third quarter 2025 adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin were comparatively lower than the record performance we achieved in the third quarter of 2024. Turning to our cash flows, we had strong operating and free cash flow in the third quarter of 2025 at $47.3 million and $44.1 million, respectively. On a year-to-date basis, both metrics are ahead of last year, with free cash flow up 13% over last year. Non-operating uses of cash in the third quarter of 2025 included $16.5 million for the acquisition of Babbini , $3.2 million for capital expenditures, $4 million for a dividend on our common stock, and $2.4 million for debt issuance costs. Let me turn next to our EPS results for the quarter.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Our adjusted EPS decreased $0.25 from $2.84 in the third quarter of 2024 to $2.59 in the third quarter of 2025. This includes decreases of $0.32 due to higher operating expenses, $0.17 due to lower revenue, $0.05 due to a higher tax rate, and $0.01 due to higher non-controlling interest. These decreases were partially offset by $0.15 in lower interest expense, $0.10 due to a higher gross margin percentage, and $0.05 from the operating results of our recent acquisition, excluding associated borrowing costs. Collectively, included in all the categories I just mentioned, was a favorable foreign currency translation effect of $0.03 in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the third quarter last year due to the weakening of the U.S. dollar against certain currencies. Now I'll review our liquidity metrics on slide 15.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

We renewed our revolving credit facility at the end of the third quarter, increasing our borrowing capacity from $400 million-$750 million and extending the maturity date to September 2030. This will help support the acquisition strategy we outlined in our most recent five-year plan. Our net debt, that is debt less cash, decreased $20.6 million or 14% sequentially to $131.1 million. Our cash balance grew to $126.9 million due to an increase in cash held in anticipation of our fourth quarter acquisition of Clyde Industries. Our leverage ratio, calculated in accordance with our credit agreement, increased to 0.94 compared to 0.86 at the end of the second quarter of 2025. At the end of the third quarter of 2025, we had $502 million of committed borrowing capacity, which was lowered to $332 million following our acquisition of Clyde Industries at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Our cash conversion days, which we calculated by taking days in receivables plus days in inventory and subtracting days in accounts payable, increased to 131 at the end of the third quarter of 2025 compared to 129 in the prior year quarter. Working capital, as a percentage of revenue, increased to 18% in the third quarter of 2025 compared to 17.7% in the second quarter of 2025. Now turning to our guidance for the fourth quarter and full year 2025. In early July, we completed the acquisition of Babbini for $16.5 million net of cash acquired, and after the end of the third quarter, we acquired Clyde Industries for approximately $175 million subject to customary closing adjustments. Both of these acquisitions were funded primarily through borrowings under our revolving credit facility. We have revised our guidance to include the operating results and associated borrowing costs from these two acquisitions.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

We are continuing to monitor the impact of tariff changes and pursue opportunities to reduce the impact of these costs by finding alternative suppliers through cost sharing and, in some cases, making investments to change our manufacturing capabilities and manufacture components at different Kadant facilities. Our capital bookings were below our expectations for the third quarter. Weak market conditions in the Pulp and Paper industry resulted in lower demand for our capital equipment products in our industrial processing and flow control segments. The larger impact by far was in our industrial processing segment, where certain market conditions have resulted in a lengthening in quote-to-order times, with the majority of these pending orders moving into the fourth quarter or early 2026. This has negatively impacted our 2025 guidance, as we will not receive the associated revenue and earnings related to these orders until 2026.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

We are increasing our full-year revenue guidance range to $1,036,000,000-$1,046,000,000 from $1,020,000,000-$1,040,000,000. The revenue guidance increase includes the net effect of incremental revenue from our recent acquisitions and lower forecasted organic revenue in our flow control and industrial processing segments as a result of the lower than anticipated capital bookings in the third quarter. We are maintaining our adjusted EPS guidance of $9.05-$9.25 for 2025. The adjusted EPS guidance excludes $0.51 of acquisition-related costs and $0.02 of other costs. Our 2025 guidance includes a $0.03 negative effect from foreign currency translation compared to our prior guidance. Future actions by the central banks may impact the U.S. dollar and other currencies, which could have an impact on our guidance.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Both GAAP and adjusted EPS guidance are calculated using our initial estimates of purchase accounting adjustments, which are subject to change as we review and finalize the valuation work for our 2025 acquisitions. Our revenue guidance for the fourth quarter of 2025 is $270 million-$280 million, and our adjusted EPS guidance is $2.05-$2.25, which excludes $0.14 of acquisition-related costs. We anticipate gross margins for 2025 will be 45.1%-45.4%. This includes a 20 basis point negative impact from $2.1 million of amortization expense associated with acquired profit and inventory. We anticipate fourth quarter gross margin will be approximately 44%-44.5%. We expect SG&A for 2025 will be approximately 28.7%-29% of revenue. This includes one-time acquisition-related costs of $4.8 million. We now anticipate net interest expense of approximately $14.4 million for 2025.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

We expect our tax rate for the fourth quarter will be approximately 27%- 27.5%. I hope these guidance comments are helpful, and I'll now turn the call back over to our operator for our Q&A session. Livia?

[Operator]

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question at this time, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, simply press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Now, first question coming from the line of Gary Prestopino with Barrington Research. You'll let us know, open.

[Gary Prestopino, Managing Director at Barrington Research]

Hi. Good morning, Jeff and Mike. How are you?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Good. Thanks, Gary.

[Gary Prestopino, Managing Director at Barrington Research]

Just as I usually ask here, Mike, do you have on the segment basis the percentage of aftermarket parts revenue for this quarter versus last quarter or last year at this time?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Yeah, I can walk through that, Gary. For flow control, current quarter 74%, prior year quarter 70%. For industrial processing, 76% this quarter, comparing quarter 67%. For material handling, this quarter 52%, comparing quarter 55%. As we stated, on an overall basis, 69% for this quarter compared to 65% last year.

[Gary Prestopino, Managing Director at Barrington Research]

Okay. Thank you. That's very helpful. I'm a little bit fuzzy on what you're talking about or you're talking about that orders are being pushed back into 2026 for capital bookings, particularly in the industrial processing, but you expect stronger capital equipment demand in the fourth quarter. Maybe could you kind of square what's going on there, and then I'd have another follow-up after that.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Yeah, Gary. We have several projects that are in the late stages that we expect to book. The question becomes, you know, we've got essentially, you know, the rest of this quarter to get these things booked. In some cases, it requires down payments. In some cases, it requires letters of credit to be established. There are some administrative things that go on after we receive the official contractor order. The question is, you know, will we be able to get all of those administrative things taken care of this year and get those actually booked? We have fairly stringent booking requirements concerning down payments and letters of credit and bank credits and things like that. Some of those are out of our control.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

When you're talking about foreign orders in, say, Northern Africa or somewhere, it can take quite a while to get some of that administrative work from the banks signed off on. There are several large orders out there, and there's the question of whether we'll get booked in this quarter or they'll slip into the beginning of next year. We're encouraged by the activity level we're seeing and the opportunities that we're seeing now on the capital side, and particularly on the industrial processing business.

[Gary Prestopino, Managing Director at Barrington Research]

Okay. In terms of the challenges that your sales force has been having in terms of the worldwide or the tariffs issues and things like that, is that more or less in the rearview mirror, in your opinion, and in the future capital equipment needs across all three segments? Have the clients come to realize that this is going to be the case for a while and we need to order new capital equipment because we're running our old hard?

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

I think it's certainly better than it was earlier in the year, but it's not settled. Just this week, Trump got upset with Kadant over a commercial they ran, and now he's going to put another 10% tariff on them. He's meeting with China today to try to hammer out a deal there and maybe reduce some of the tariffs. I would say there's still a level of uncertainty and volatility that's going on. It's less chaotic than it was six months ago, but it's still not settled. I think, as you said, some people are starting to realize, okay, this is the new environment we're living in, and we've got to move forward with our business. That's why we think we're seeing some activity level, but it's not where it needs to be.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

It's not, you know, we really need to get this sorted out and kind of everybody agree on what it's going to be so we can all work accordingly. It's improving, but it's not where it needs to be yet.

[Gary Prestopino, Managing Director at Barrington Research]

Okay, thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Ross Sparenblek with William Blair. You'll let us know, open.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Hey, good morning, guys.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Morning, Ross.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Maybe just sticking on the order disruption, can you help us think through sizing the range of outcomes for the fourth quarter and maybe also thinking through, like is this, to Gary's point, brownfield, greenfield? What's the near-term driver?

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

I'll answer the latter part first. Some of the opportunities are brownfields, you know, they're existing plants with upgrades. In the developing world, as is often the case, there'll be greenfields. There'll be, you know, kind of new opportunities in the developing world. It's kind of both.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

As far as the range, we really don't give bookings range, so I'm not sure what you want to say there, Mike.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

All right. I think we kind of lost you there for a second, but it looks like one of your peers called out, you know, maybe some disruption for several quarters, presumably because of tariffs. I mean, those are larger, you know, greenfield orders, so you're not really seeing that level of impact or potential impact going into 2026?

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

I think the impact we see from tariffs is just the uncertainty that it creates. Our customers are more cautious and move more slowly as they try to better understand what the environment looks like going forward. I would say it has impacted the timing on a lot of our projects. The projects that we're tracking, I don't think we've seen any of them that we think are going to go away or be extended for years. I think the ones we're tracking that we have kind of built in our business strategy around, we think will occur over the next short period of time.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay. That's really helpful. One more question. I'll hop back in queue. Can you just give us a sense of, you know, factory utilization rates globally and how we should think about the parts consumable mix here as we look at it?

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

As we've said all year long, we had another record parts quarter. Our parts are overperforming relative to the operating rates, and that's because the equipment is getting quite old, and it's just taking a lot more parts to keep it running. The operating rates, you know, it kind of depends on the business you're looking at, whether you're talking about the wood processing side or the paper side. In the U.S., operating rates are higher than the rest of the world. I would say they're higher here, maybe in the kind of in the wood sides, maybe in the low 80%. Or, I'm sorry, on the paper side, in the low 80%. The wood side, it's a little less clear. Those can kind of curtail very quickly, and it's a little harder to keep track of those. They're certainly running at a reduced operating rate and taking downtime.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

China, I would say, is still in the 60% operating rates, and Europe is in the kind of the 70%. It really hasn't changed much throughout the year.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Yeah, thanks, Jeff. That's very helpful. I'll hop back into queue, guys.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Kurt Yinger with D.A. Davidson. You'll let us know, open.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Great. Thanks. Good morning, everyone. I just wanted to stick on the capital equipment side and understanding, you know, we're not going to kind of guide to a Q4 bookings number. If we were to look at the Q3 performance, kind of low $60 million in capital equipment bookings, the last two years have kind of been in the low $70 million. I guess my question is, when we think about these larger fiber processing orders that you seem to have visibility to, but maybe kind of still pushed out, are those sufficient to really pick things up relative to maybe what we've seen versus the last two years, or is it just kind of helping get back to that baseline relative to the weak Q3? How would you kind of frame that for us?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

No, I think it would be a step change for us. It would be very, very helpful. These are projects that will be processed over a number of quarters. I mean, we'll be able to recognize revenue on a percent complete basis as they get processed over, say, three or four quarters. I know we usually kind of stay away from trying to forecast bookings, but I can give you a little color on what we're looking at by the segments. If I look at capital activity and flow control compared to the prior year period, so fourth quarter of 2024, we're looking for capital activity to be up 3% or 4%. So somewhat modestly in flow control. In material handling, I'd say kind of same boat, up about 3%-5%. Interestingly, there, I want to clarify, that isn't on the capital side.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

That's in parts and consumables, whereas flow control is on the capital side. I think the big wildcard is really in industrial processing. On the capital side, there is, you know, looking to be up, say, 3% or 4%. The big difference maker is, as we've been discussing, in fiber processing. It could be up significantly compared to, frankly, many periods. There are a number of really nice projects that we're hoping will come in, I'd say, over the next quarter to three quarters, so first half of 2026 to the fourth quarter of 2025. That's really the big wildcard for us. There's a number of good projects there. They haven't gone away. We feel we're well-positioned, and we're just waiting for the order to be finally booked.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Got it. Okay. That's super helpful. Thanks, Mike. Maybe bigger picture, you know, the multi-year targets of 3%-5% kind of organic top-line growth, do we need a more broad-based recovery, you know, expanding past just some of those fiber processing orders, or would those be kind of sufficient to help you get back into that range from what you can see?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

I would say we do need a more broad-based recovery to really get back to that.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Particularly housing. You know, we need to see the housing environment improve because, as you know, that drives a lot of the economy and it drives a lot of our, you know, our businesses. A pickup in housing, I think, is quite important, not only to, you know, to us, but to the general economy.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Right. Okay. That makes sense. Switching over to parts and consumables, that's obviously been a nice consistent performer here. How should we think about price versus volume kind of contributions so far this year? As we look across the backdrop, you know, a lot of closures in the pulp and paper space, probably more to come on the wood processing side. Does that give you any concerns about potential deceleration there even, or is kind of that older age of installed base still supporting pretty healthy demand?

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Yeah. I would say that on the part, a lot of those closures, of course, you've got to kind of look at the details of those. They may not be, if it's a pulp plant, of course, as you know, we, until the recent acquisition of Clyde Industries, which mainly focuses on the new mega plants, we've not had a lot of business on that. When they announce closures of some of these mills that are virgin mills, that has less of an impact. It's not zero, but it has less of an impact on us. I think we tend to look at the global market. In the global production, global demand is continuing to grow, somewhere between 1.5% and 2.5%, depending on where you're at around the world right now.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Because we operate pretty much in every mill in the world, what you're seeing is you're seeing a shifting of the production to meet that demand growth. We work very hard to make sure we're there so that if something shuts down in Georgia and something opens up in Turkey or Algeria, we're there to capture that. We think that for the most part, as long as global demand continues to grow, our parts business, which is a function of operating rates and total production demand, will be okay.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Okay. That makes sense. Mike, as we think about the Q4 revenue guide, could you just put a finer point, I guess, around how much contribution you expect from Clyde Industries and Babbini , and then, you know, the overall kind of organic growth assumption in there?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Yeah. It's a good question, Kurt. For Clyde Industries and Babbini , I'd say we're anticipating revenue in the $23 to $25 million range for those combined. I actually, on mine, I'm kind of on the lower side of that to the $23 million. A couple of comments I want to make on that. You can, you'll be able to see, you heard in our comments, but you saw in our press release, Babbini had a very good third quarter. They shipped $5.9 million. You saw in the graphic, the chart we put up, that's $0.05 without interest cost. A note of clarification there, their third quarter tends to be their strongest third quarter.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Of course, we've just brought them into the fold and haven't been able to, we are working on, but it'll take us a little time to get them reoriented towards a parts and consumable business and capturing that flow. I think the management team there is very excited about doing that and changing their business model and not being as focused on capital equipment. For capital equipment in the fourth quarter, their fall is quite weak. Frankly, it's quite a weak quarter for them. On the Babbini front, or excuse me, on the Clyde Industries front, we had said their revenues were about $92 million. If you divided that by four, you'd say $23 million. They actually would have been pretty close to that, but they pulled a capital order into their third quarter.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

They're going to be a little under that $23 million because they shipped an order a little bit earlier. It was scheduled for the fourth quarter. I think they would have come in pretty spot on the $23 million, but they're a little lighter than they would normally be. That's some color on the top line. What else? I'll stick to, you can see, you saw for the third quarter, the $0.05. If we allocated the interest to that, that'd be $0.04 for Babbini . Interestingly enough, with their weaker top line fourth quarter, with interest allocated, they'll be dilutive $0.04 in the fourth quarter. They'll be for the year break even, but in the fourth quarter, dilutive $0.04 on our adjusted EPS. For Clyde Industries, we have them right now at being dilutive of $0.02 with the interest charge in there. Excluding the interest charge, they'd be accretive $0.13.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

If I took then both of those, Babbini and Clyde Industries, with interest allocated to them, they're actually dilutive $0.06 in the fourth quarter for us.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Got it. Okay. Perfect. Just last from me on kind of run rate SG&A, if we were to back out some of the one-time acquisition costs and whatnot, is a good kind of go forward quarterly number in the $80 million range or even a little bit above that?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

I want to be clear, we're working through the valuation. We just have markers in currently. I think we'll run a little bit lower than that, but you're not far off the mark there. I think it'll run just modestly lower than that, you know. Maybe it's somewhere between the $78-$80.

[Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson]

Okay. Perfect. Thank you for the color. Appreciate it.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. To ask a question, please press star one one. Our next question is coming from the line of Edward Butterway with Boston Partners. Your line is now open.

[Edward Odre, Equity Analyst at Boston Partners]

Hi, Mike and Jeff, thanks for taking these questions. I just had one here. When you talk about delayed bookings, what's the sort of quantum of official orders that you've received and that are just waiting for administrative processes to conclude relative to just conversations that are being had that are kind of still up in the air? Could you provide any color around that?

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Yeah. I mean, we really, because we don't kind of give, you know, bookings and they haven't officially been booked, I can't give you a number. I can just tell you that we're in discussions, the final discussions on some of these larger projects. In some cases, we might have some of the paperwork, but we're waiting for down payments where we can officially book it or we're waiting for a letter of credit. There are some, in some cases, they're very far along. We feel quite confident about them, but they just haven't met our bookings requirements so that we can actually book it and just close it. We stay pretty disciplined on that and make sure that we check all the boxes before we actually call it a booking.

[Edward Odre, Equity Analyst at Boston Partners]

No worries. Thanks for that color. Just one thing, I might have missed it earlier. In terms of price and consumables performance, how much of this was driven by price versus volume this quarter?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

I'd lean more towards the volume side of it.

[Edward Odre, Equity Analyst at Boston Partners]

Okay, cool. Thank you.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Yep.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Ross Sparenblek with William Blair. You'll let us know, open.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Hey, thanks for taking the follow-up here. A couple of questions. Can you help me pinpoint what the backlog was? I'm around $260, and then also on the equipment side, I know there's some moving parts.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Yeah, Ross. We ended the third quarter with backlog at $273, and capital in that's about 60%, so about $163 million.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Is there any margin differential within that backlog versus the run rate for the year?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

No, I think it's fairly consistent.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay. Now that you've had some time with Clyde Industries, what should we expect for that backlog contribution going into the fourth quarter? I know you said that it was fairly strong, $92 million in revenue. Where should that be shaking out as we think about modeling orders?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

I have that here somewhere, Ross. I think it's a little over $30 million. You know, use $30 million as a marker.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay. If it's not book and ship, there's about 25% that's equipment, but you know, sales similar to orders for Clyde Industries on a quarterly basis? Is that kind of the assumption?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Sorry, Ross. What was that? I didn't catch the.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

When we include Clyde Industries, are the orders going to be similar to what we should expect on the top line for revenue contribution? Kind of a one-for-one? Everything goes through the order book.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

Everything's going to go through the order book as a certainty. Everything will be through the order book. You know, 75% of their business is parts and consumables. What I can't give you right now because we're acclimating ourselves to the business is exactly that turn cycle.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay. Just one last one on the margins. Can you give us a sense for Clyde, you know, where the DNA, SG&A, R&D, gross margins all, you know, shook out after you finish your accounting?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

I can talk to the margin profile on it. One thing I'd say is broadly, it fits very well in the industrial processing segment. What you see for metrics in industrial processing, this will fit really well, both on the gross margin and even a margin front.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

Okay, just nothing really to do there, pretty similar to the existing pricing margins.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

It fits very nicely in that segment.

[Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair]

All right. Fantastic, guys. Thank you.

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your touchtone telephone. We'll give it a moment. Again, that's star one one. Our next question coming from the line of Edward Butterway with Boston Partners. You'll let us know open. Edward, please check your mute button. You'll let us know open.

[Edward Odre, Equity Analyst at Boston Partners]

Hey, guys. Sorry, just one more thing from me. Just regarding the Clyde Industries acquisition, I wasn't able to see this in the release, but how much cash did you acquire with that business?

[Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO at Kadant]

We always do it. We do all our things net of cash because we're just going to, at the end of the day, the only cash that's going to be left is operating cash. I could do it off the top of my head, but to be quite honest, it's somewhat irrelevant because we'll sweep it and just pay down debt and just have operating cash there.

[Edward Odre, Equity Analyst at Boston Partners]

Okay, cool. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Jeff Powell for any closing remarks.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Thanks, Livia. Before we wrap up the call today, I just wanted to leave you with a few takeaways. The second half of 2025 is expected to show solid improvement compared to the first half across a wide range of metrics, despite the turmoil in global trade policy and other societal challenges that we're currently facing. As we look ahead to the fourth quarter of 2025, we expect demand for capital equipment to improve and strong aftermarket parts quarter activity. We've made solid progress this year in our efforts to drive operational improvements, which includes our 80/20 performance enhancement program and other initiatives to maximize value despite the continuing challenging macroeconomic environment in various regions of the world. Lastly, we look forward to updating you next quarter on the integration of Clyde Industries and our other recent acquisitions.

[Jeff Powell, President and CEO at Kadant]

Thanks for joining today, and we wish you the best for the rest of the day.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, and you may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Jeff Powell, President and CEO
• Michael McKenney, EVP and CFO

Analysts

• Ross Sparenblek, Equity Research Analyst at William Blair
• Edward Odre, Equity Analyst at Boston Partners
• Kurt Yinger, SVP and Research Analyst at D.A. Davidson
• Gary Prestopino, Managing Director at Barrington Research