Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes $1.85 Million Position in Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 5,500 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $1,853,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Kadant in the first quarter valued at about $30,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Kadant by 267.9% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 103 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Kadant by 50.0% in the first quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 150 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Kadant by 348.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 242 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Kadant in the first quarter valued at approximately $111,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

KAI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Kadant from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Kadant from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 5th. Finally, Barrington Research reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research report on Thursday, May 1st.

Kadant Stock Performance

KAI stock traded down $1.72 on Friday, reaching $332.87. 109,233 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 117,486. Kadant Inc has a 12 month low of $281.30 and a 12 month high of $429.95. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $320.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $336.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a PE ratio of 35.34 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 1.62.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $2.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.97 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $239.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $239.41 million. Kadant had a net margin of 10.63% and a return on equity of 13.74%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.38 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Kadant Inc will post 9.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kadant Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.41%. Kadant's payout ratio is presently 14.44%.

Kadant announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 15th that allows the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization allows the industrial products company to repurchase up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.