American Century Companies Inc. Sells 773 Shares of Kadant Inc $KAI

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. reduced its stake in Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) by 23.0% in the 1st quarter, owning 2,591 shares valued at $873,000 after selling 773 shares.
• Analysts have mixed views on Kadant, with Wall Street Zen upgrading the stock from "sell" to "hold" while Barrington Research maintains an "outperform" rating with a target price of $380.00.
• Kadant announced a quarterly dividend of $0.34 per share, set to be paid on November 6th, along with a share buyback plan authorizing $50 million for open market purchases.

American Century Companies Inc. lessened its position in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI - Free Report) by 23.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,591 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 773 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.'s holdings in Kadant were worth $873,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in KAI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Kadant by 9.4% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,332,583 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $448,961,000 after purchasing an additional 114,310 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Kadant by 97.9% during the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 221,209 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $74,528,000 after purchasing an additional 109,439 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Kadant by 150,885.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 81,532 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $27,469,000 after purchasing an additional 81,478 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Kadant by 809.9% during the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 64,893 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $21,863,000 after purchasing an additional 57,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board acquired a new position in Kadant during the 1st quarter worth approximately $12,555,000. Institutional investors own 96.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

KAI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. DA Davidson upped their price objective on shares of Kadant from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Barrington Research reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research report on Tuesday, July 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Kadant from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $340.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Kadant

In other news, Director Thomas C. Leonard sold 415 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $338.41, for a total transaction of $140,440.15. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,250 shares in the company, valued at $1,438,242.50. This represents a 8.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Kadant Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of KAI traded down $7.30 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $318.38. 48,377 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 140,215. 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 current ratio of 2.38 and a quick ratio of 1.53. The business has a 50-day moving average of $332.13 and a 200-day moving average of $327.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45 and a beta of 1.25.

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

Kadant Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 9th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Kadant's dividend payout ratio is 15.14%.

Kadant declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the industrial products company to purchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Kadant Company Profile

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.