Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.32

Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 14th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.32 per share by the industrial products company on Thursday, February 6th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th.

Kadant has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Kadant has a payout ratio of 10.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Kadant to earn $10.58 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.1%.

Kadant Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:KAI opened at $346.63 on Wednesday. Kadant has a 52 week low of $249.51 and a 52 week high of $429.95. The company’s 50 day moving average is $378.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $339.53. The company has a current ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $4.07 billion, a PE ratio of 35.48 and a beta of 1.28.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.41. Kadant had a net margin of 11.12% and a return on equity of 15.10%. The business had revenue of $271.61 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $266.38 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.69 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Kadant will post 10.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Kadant news, Director Thomas C. Leonard sold 152 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $398.21, for a total transaction of $60,527.92. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 4,250 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,692,392.50. This represents a 3.45 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Fredrik H. Westerhout sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $397.25, for a total transaction of $238,350.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 1,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $570,848.25. The trade was a 29.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,052 shares of company stock worth $416,655 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barrington Research upped their target price on shares of Kadant from $360.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th.

About Kadant

Kadant Inc supplies technologies and engineered systems worldwide. It operates in 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, doctor blades, cleaning shower and fabric-conditioning systems, forming systems and wear surfaces, and water-filtration systems.