Kadant (KAI) Competitors

Pentair (NYSE:PNR) and Kadant (NYSE:KAI) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and community ranking.

Do analysts recommend PNR or KAI?

Pentair currently has a consensus price target of $106.93, indicating a potential upside of 17.82%. Kadant has a consensus price target of $327.50, indicating a potential upside of 11.11%. Given Pentair's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Pentair is more favorable than Kadant.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pentair	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.94
Kadant	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Which has better earnings and valuation, PNR or KAI?

Pentair has higher revenue and earnings than Kadant. Pentair 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
Pentair	$4.08B	3.66	$625.40M	$3.87	23.45
Kadant	$1.05B	3.30	$111.60M	$9.48	31.09

Does the media prefer PNR or KAI?

In the previous week, Kadant had 6 more articles in the media than Pentair. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Kadant and 19 mentions for Pentair. Pentair's average media sentiment score of 0.79 beat Kadant's score of 0.79 indicating that Pentair is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Pentair	13 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Kadant	6 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is PNR or KAI more profitable?

Pentair has a net margin of 15.32% compared to Kadant's net margin of 10.59%. Pentair's return on equity of 20.94% beat Kadant's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pentair	15.32%	20.94%	11.05%
Kadant	10.59%	14.66%	8.33%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in PNR or KAI?

Pentair received 348 more outperform votes than Kadant when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 58.24% of users gave Kadant an outperform vote while only 57.51% of users gave Pentair an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Pentair	Outperform Votes 666 57.51%	Underperform Votes 492 42.49%
Kadant	Outperform Votes 318 58.24%	Underperform Votes 228 41.76%

Which has more volatility and risk, PNR or KAI?

Pentair has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kadant has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in PNR or KAI?

92.4% of Pentair shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Kadant shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Pentair shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Kadant shares are owned by 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.

Is PNR or KAI a better dividend stock?

Pentair pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Kadant pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Pentair pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kadant pays out 14.3% 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.

Summary

Pentair beats Kadant on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.