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Kadant (KAI) Competitors

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$326.90 +8.80 (+2.77%)
As of 07/8/2025 03:59 PM Eastern

KAI vs. FELE, LECO, AIN, DOV, FBIN, HI, ITT, NPO, PH, and WTS

Should you be buying Kadant stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Kadant include Franklin Electric (FELE), Lincoln Electric (LECO), Albany International (AIN), Dover (DOV), Fortune Brands Innovations (FBIN), Hillenbrand (HI), ITT (ITT), Enpro (NPO), Parker-Hannifin (PH), and Watts Water Technologies (WTS).

Kadant vs. Its Competitors

Franklin Electric (NASDAQ:FELE) and Kadant (NYSE:KAI) are both mid-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.

80.0% of Franklin Electric shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.1% of Kadant shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Franklin Electric shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Kadant shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Franklin Electric currently has a consensus price target of $94.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.20%. Kadant has a consensus price target of $327.50, indicating a potential upside of 0.18%. Given Franklin Electric's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Franklin Electric is more favorable than Kadant.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Franklin Electric
0 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
0 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.00
Kadant
0 Sell rating(s)
1 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.50

Kadant has a net margin of 10.63% compared to Franklin Electric's net margin of 8.85%. Franklin Electric's return on equity of 14.08% beat Kadant's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Franklin Electric8.85% 14.08% 9.72%
Kadant 10.63%13.74%8.10%

In the previous week, Franklin Electric had 4 more articles in the media than Kadant. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for Franklin Electric and 6 mentions for Kadant. Kadant's average media sentiment score of 0.89 beat Franklin Electric's score of 0.77 indicating that Kadant is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Franklin Electric
3 Very Positive mention(s)
3 Positive mention(s)
4 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Kadant
3 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

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

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Franklin Electric$2.02B2.08$180.31M$3.8224.08
Kadant$1.05B3.66$111.60M$9.4234.70

Franklin Electric pays an annual dividend of $1.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Kadant pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Franklin Electric pays out 27.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kadant pays out 14.4% 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. Franklin Electric has increased its dividend for 33 consecutive years and Kadant has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Franklin Electric is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Franklin Electric has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kadant has a beta of 1.25, suggesting that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Kadant beats Franklin Electric on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding KAI and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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KAI vs. The Competition

MetricKadantMACH IndustryIndustrials SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$3.75B$12.83B$7.50B$20.52B
Dividend Yield0.43%23.76%4.54%3.78%
P/E Ratio34.7028.5024.7727.79
Price / Sales3.665.26116.0840.48
Price / Cash21.9116.2427.3122.26
Price / Book4.473.854.354.58
Net Income$111.60M$511.25M$790.28M$982.91M
7 Day Performance-0.81%0.19%1.56%0.41%
1 Month Performance-1.94%6.84%4.65%3.59%
1 Year Performance8.39%36.59%31.98%14.47%

Kadant Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
KAI
Kadant
1.7678 of 5 stars
$326.90
+2.8%
$327.50
+0.2%
+9.1%$3.75B$1.05B34.703,500
FELE
Franklin Electric
4.3857 of 5 stars
$89.74
-0.6%
$94.00
+4.7%
-3.0%$4.12B$2.02B23.496,300News Coverage
LECO
Lincoln Electric
3.3218 of 5 stars
$207.32
-0.9%
$206.40
-0.4%
+17.8%$11.68B$4.01B25.5612,000Positive News
AIN
Albany International
3.6584 of 5 stars
$70.20
+1.0%
$79.00
+12.5%
-14.7%$2.10B$1.23B28.315,400News Coverage
High Trading Volume
DOV
Dover
4.7057 of 5 stars
$183.34
+0.0%
$208.58
+13.8%
+6.8%$25.13B$7.75B11.0424,000Trending News
FBIN
Fortune Brands Innovations
4.4606 of 5 stars
$51.52
+0.4%
$77.17
+49.8%
-17.6%$6.17B$4.61B12.9511,000News Coverage
HI
Hillenbrand
4.5315 of 5 stars
$20.10
-1.6%
$32.00
+59.2%
-41.6%$1.44B$3.18B6.7610,450
ITT
ITT
4.2999 of 5 stars
$156.93
-0.6%
$165.50
+5.5%
+24.4%$12.43B$3.63B24.9511,700
NPO
Enpro
3.4872 of 5 stars
$191.63
+0.2%
$202.50
+5.7%
+37.9%$4.02B$1.05B47.673,500Positive News
PH
Parker-Hannifin
4.5075 of 5 stars
$698.99
-0.2%
$719.71
+3.0%
+39.0%$89.51B$19.93B26.9261,120Positive News
WTS
Watts Water Technologies
4.0841 of 5 stars
$246.51
+0.2%
$231.20
-6.2%
+42.6%$8.21B$2.25B28.244,800

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This page (NYSE:KAI) was last updated on 7/9/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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