Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Sells 2,403 Shares of Kadant Inc $KAI

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA cut its stake in shares of Kadant Inc (NYSE:KAI) by 4.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 52,259 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 2,403 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned about 0.44% of Kadant worth $13,667,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in KAI. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in Kadant by 12,689.4% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 33,892 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,908,000 after buying an additional 33,627 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Kadant by 91.6% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,404 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,384,000 after buying an additional 2,106 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Kadant in the second quarter valued at about $565,205,000. Callan Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Kadant in the second quarter valued at about $4,396,000. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Kadant during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,843,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Kadant from $306.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen cut Kadant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Kadant from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $357.50.

Kadant Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:KAI opened at $296.28 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.90 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a quick ratio of 5.26, a current ratio of 2.49 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Kadant Inc has a 52 week low of $244.87 and a 52 week high of $354.07. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $274.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $305.56.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The industrial products company reported $3.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.00 by $0.64. Kadant had a return on equity of 14.05% and a net margin of 9.81%. The firm had revenue of $313.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $302.03 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Kadant Inc will post 12.67 EPS for the current year.

Kadant Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th were paid a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Kadant’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.53%.

About Kadant

Kadant Inc. is a global supplier of technologies and engineered systems used in industrial processing and papermaking. Its products help customers manage fluids, process materials, and improve the efficiency of manufacturing operations. The company’s offerings include fluid-handling equipment such as rotary joints, syphons, and expansion joints; doctoring, cleaning, and filtration systems; and equipment for stock preparation and paper recycling. Kadant also provides material-processing technologies for applications including packaging, tissue, corrugated products, and other industrial markets.