Man Group plc Purchases 1,760 Shares of Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI)

Man Group plc lifted its position in shares of Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI - Free Report) by 10.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,448 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,760 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc owned 0.17% of Kadant worth $6,709,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Kadant during the fourth quarter worth $464,000. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Kadant by 54.6% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 504 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $174,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kadant by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 121,686 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $41,980,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kadant by 87.1% during the fourth quarter. Wesbanco Bank Inc. now owns 1,590 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $549,000 after purchasing an additional 740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Kadant by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,132 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $2,460,000 after purchasing an additional 828 shares in the last quarter. 96.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barrington Research reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $380.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Kadant from $300.00 to $275.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st.

Kadant Trading Down 2.0%

KAI opened at $319.47 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.70 and a beta of 1.30. Kadant Inc. has a 12 month low of $266.23 and a 12 month high of $429.95. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $319.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $355.80. The company has a current ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI - Get Free Report) last issued 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. Kadant had a net margin of 10.59% and a return on equity of 14.66%. The firm had revenue of $239.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $239.41 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.38 EPS. The company's revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Kadant Inc. will post 9.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kadant Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Kadant's dividend payout ratio is presently 14.44%.

Kadant announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 15th that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the industrial products company to buy up to 1.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is 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.

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