Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) Increases Dividend to $0.34 Per Share

Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 5th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.34 per share by the industrial products company on Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.37%. This is a 6.3% increase from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32.

Kadant has raised its dividend by an average of 8.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Kadant has a payout ratio of 11.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Kadant to earn $11.39 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 11.2%.

Kadant Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE:KAI traded up $9.51 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $370.13. 96,692 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 179,405. Kadant has a 1 year low of $249.51 and a 1 year high of $429.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $366.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $355.40. The firm has a market cap of $4.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.04 and a beta of 1.29.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The industrial products company reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.08 by $0.17. Kadant had a return on equity of 14.66% and a net margin of 10.59%. Equities research analysts forecast that Kadant will post 9.97 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $410.00 price objective on shares of Kadant in a research note on Friday, February 14th.

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.