How to buy Kadant stock | $138.16

Kadant Inc is a specialty industrial machinery business based in the US. Kadant shares (KAI) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Kadant employs 2,700 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$649.3 million.

How to buy shares in Kadant

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Kadant. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: KAI. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Kadant reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$138.16, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Kadant, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Kadant. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Kadant share price

Use our graph to track the performance of KAI stocks over time.

Kadant shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-27.

Latest market close	USD$138.16
52-week range	USD$52.2964 - USD$144.83
50-day moving average	USD$133.7182
200-day moving average	USD$117.5378
Wall St. target price	USD$115.5
PE ratio	33.2051
Dividend yield	USD$0.96 (0.7%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$4.134

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Is it a good time to buy Kadant stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Kadant Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Kadant price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $138.16 from 2020-12-09

1 week (2021-01-12)	-6.55%
1 month (2020-12-18)	-2.35%
3 months (2020-10-19)	17.68%
6 months (2020-07-17)	19.17%

1 year (2020-01-17)	22.81%
2 years (2019-01-18)	60.78%
3 years (2018-01-19)	40.76%
5 years (2016-01-19)	298.39%

Is Kadant under- or over-valued?

Valuing Kadant stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Kadant's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Kadant's P/E ratio

Kadant's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 33x. In other words, Kadant shares trade at around 33x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Kadant's PEG ratio

Kadant's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 3.2291. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Kadant's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Kadant's EBITDA

Kadant's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$115.7 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Kadant's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Kadant financials

Revenue TTM	USD$649.3 million
Operating margin TTM	12.99%
Gross profit TTM	USD$290.2 million
Return on assets TTM	5.7%
Return on equity TTM	11.1%
Profit margin	7.35%
Book value	$40.049
Market capitalisation	USD$1.6 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Kadant shares

There are currently 164,256 Kadant shares held short by investors – that's known as Kadant's "short interest". This figure is 5.1% down from 173,073 last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Kadant shares can be evaluated.

Kadant's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Kadant's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Kadant shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Kadant shares traded daily (recently around 42775). Kadant's SIR currently stands at 3.84. In other words for every 100,000 Kadant shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3840 shares are currently held short.

However Kadant's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Kadant shares, or, against the total number of tradable Kadant shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Kadant's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Kadant shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0167% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Kadant shares, roughly 17 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Kadant.

Find out more about how you can short Kadant stock.

Kadant share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 20.13% of net profits

Recently Kadant has paid out, on average, around 20.13% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.7% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Kadant shareholders could enjoy a 0.7% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Kadant's case, that would currently equate to about $0.96 per share.

While Kadant's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Kadant is investing more in its future growth.

Kadant's most recent dividend payout was on 4 February 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 6 January 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Kadant's shares ever split?

Kadant's shares were split on a 1:5 basis on 12 July 2001. So if you had owned 5 shares the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 1 share. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Kadant shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 400% higher share price could have impacted the market appetite for Kadant shares which in turn could have impacted Kadant's share price.

Kadant share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Kadant's shares have ranged in value from as little as $52.2964 up to $144.83. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Kadant's is 1.379. This would suggest that Kadant's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Kadant overview

Kadant Inc. supplies equipment and critical components worldwide. The company's Papermaking Systems segment develops, manufactures, and markets custom-engineered stock-preparation systems and equipment for the preparation of wastepaper for conversion into recycled paper and balers, as well as related equipment used in the processing of recyclable and waste materials; and fluid-handling systems and equipment used in industrial piping systems to compensate for movement, as well as to transfer fluid, power, and data. This segment also offers doctoring systems and equipment, and related consumables to enhance the operation of paper machines and other industrial processes; and filtration and cleaning systems for draining, purifying, and recycling process water, as well as cleaning fabrics, belts, and rolls in various process industries. Its Wood Processing Systems segment develops, manufactures, and markets debarkers, stranders, chippers, logging machinery, and related equipment used in the harvesting and production of lumber and oriented strand board, an engineered wood panel product used primarily in home construction. The company's Material Handling Systems segment develops, manufactures, and markets material handling equipment and systems, such as idler rolls, conveyors, vibratory screens, and flow aids to various process industries, including mining, aggregates, food processing, packaging, and pulp and paper industries. It also manufactures and sells biodegradable absorbent granules for use as carriers in agricultural, home lawn and garden, professional lawn, and turf and ornamental applications, as well as for oil and grease absorption. The company was formerly known as Thermo Fibertek Inc. and changed its name to Kadant Inc. in July 2001. Kadant Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Kadant is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 1.969% of Kadant shares are held by insiders and 98.748% by institutions.

• How many people work for Kadant?

  Latest data suggests 2,700 work at Kadant.

• When does the fiscal year end for Kadant?

  Kadant's fiscal year ends in January.

• Where is Kadant based?

  Kadant's address is: One Technology Park Drive, Westford, MA, United States, 01886

• What is Kadant's ISIN number?

  Kadant's international securities identification number is: US48282T1043

• What is Kadant's CUSIP number?

  Kadant's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 48282T104