Kadant (KAI) Competitors

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) and IDEX (NYSE:IEX) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Is KAI or IEX more profitable?

IDEX has a net margin of 15.45% compared to Kadant's net margin of 10.59%. IDEX's return on equity of 16.08% beat Kadant's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kadant	10.59%	14.66%	8.33%
IDEX	15.45%	16.08%	9.39%

Do analysts recommend KAI or IEX?

Kadant currently has a consensus target price of $327.50, suggesting a potential upside of 5.77%. IDEX has a consensus target price of $212.50, suggesting a potential upside of 17.28%. Given IDEX's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe IDEX is more favorable than Kadant.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kadant	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
IDEX	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Do insiders and institutionals believe in KAI or IEX?

96.1% of Kadant shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.0% of IDEX shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Kadant shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of IDEX shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk and volatility, KAI or IEX?

Kadant has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IDEX has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor KAI or IEX?

In the previous week, IDEX had 8 more articles in the media than Kadant. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for IDEX and 9 mentions for Kadant. IDEX's average media sentiment score of 1.05 beat Kadant's score of 1.01 indicating that IDEX is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Kadant	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
IDEX	11 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community favor KAI or IEX?

IDEX received 158 more outperform votes than Kadant when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.77% of users gave IDEX an outperform vote while only 58.14% of users gave Kadant an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Kadant	Outperform Votes 318 58.14%	Underperform Votes 229 41.86%
IDEX	Outperform Votes 476 58.77%	Underperform Votes 334 41.23%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, KAI or IEX?

IDEX has higher revenue and earnings than Kadant. IDEX is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kadant, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kadant	$1.04B	3.49	$111.60M	$9.42	32.87
IDEX	$3.28B	4.17	$505M	$6.31	28.72

Is KAI or IEX a better dividend stock?

Kadant pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. IDEX pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Kadant pays out 14.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. IDEX pays out 45.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Kadant has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years and IDEX has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. IDEX is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

IDEX beats Kadant on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.