How to buy Kadant stock

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 2,600 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around 0.00.

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 2021-04-30.

52-week range	$77.24 - $189.14
50-day moving average	$180.39
200-day moving average	$150.42
Wall St. target price	$156.00
PE ratio	37.7191
Dividend yield	$0.96 (0.53%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	$4.77

Buy Kadant shares from these brokerages

Compare special offers, low fees and a wide range of types of investments among top trading platforms.

*Signup bonus information updated weekly.

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.

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 38x. In other words, Kadant shares trade at around 38x 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 $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	$635 million
Operating margin TTM	13.29%
Gross profit TTM	$277.3 million
Return on assets TTM	5.65%
Return on equity TTM	12.06%
Profit margin	8.69%
Book value	$42.92
Market capitalisation	$2.1 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Kadant shares

There are currently 187,437 Kadant shares held short by investors – that's known as Kadant's "short interest". This figure is 12.5% down from 214,113 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 55291.150442478). Kadant's SIR currently stands at 3.39. In other words for every 100,000 Kadant shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3390 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 0.02% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Kadant shares in existence, roughly 20 shares are currently held short) or 0.0193% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Kadant shares, roughly 19 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: 18.58% of net profits

Recently Kadant has paid out, on average, around 18.58% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.55% 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 0.55% 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 11 May 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 12 April 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Kadant's shares ever split?

Kadant's shares were split on a 1:5 basis on 11 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 $77.2443 up to $189.1431. 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 1.3596. 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 critical components and engineered systems worldwide. It operates through 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, profiling systems, doctor blades, shower and fabric-conditioning systems, formation systems, and water-filtration systems. The Industrial Processing segment develops, manufactures, and markets ring and rotary debarkers, stranders, chippers, logging machinery, industrial automation and control systems, recycling and approach flow systems, and virgin pulping process equipment for use in the packaging, tissue, wood products, and alternative fuel industries. The Material Handling segment offers conveying and vibratory equipment, and balers and related equipment; and manufactures and sells biodegradable absorbent granules for carriers in as carriers in agricultural, home lawn and garden, professional lawn, turf, and ornamental applications, as well as for oil and grease absorption. The company was formerly known as Thermo Fibertek Inc.

Frequently asked questions

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

  Currently 1.413% of Kadant shares are held by insiders and 100.889% by institutions.

• How many people work for Kadant?

  Latest data suggests 2,600 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