Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Buys 2,216 Shares of Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC increased its position in Kadant Inc. (NYSE:KAI) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,018 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,216 shares during the quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned about 0.46% of Kadant worth $18,636,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Kadant by 25.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,218,273 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $420,292,000 after purchasing an additional 243,267 shares in the last quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new stake in Kadant during the fourth quarter valued at about $193,595,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Kadant by 2.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 280,797 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $94,909,000 after acquiring an additional 6,412 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in Kadant by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 144,344 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $48,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,629 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Kadant in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,529,000. Institutional investors own 96.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Barrington Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $410.00 target price on shares of Kadant in a report on Friday, February 14th.

Kadant Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KAI opened at $304.54 on Friday. Kadant Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $249.51 and a fifty-two week high of $429.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 2.29. The company has a market cap of $3.59 billion, a PE ratio of 32.12 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $362.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $360.41.

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The industrial products company reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.17. Kadant had a return on equity of 14.66% and a net margin of 10.59%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Kadant Inc. will post 9.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kadant Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This is a boost from Kadant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 9th. Kadant’s payout ratio is currently 14.35%.

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.