Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) Given New $24.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) had its price objective reduced by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $28.00 to $24.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the industrial products company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 11.50% from the stock’s current price.

KMT has been the topic of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Kennametal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America lowered shares of Kennametal from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $26.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Kennametal from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of Kennametal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Loop Capital raised their target price on shares of Kennametal from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.60.

Kennametal Stock Performance

NYSE:KMT opened at $21.53 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a market capitalization of $1.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.66. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $24.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.56. Kennametal has a twelve month low of $20.50 and a twelve month high of $32.18.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.27 by ($0.02). Kennametal had a net margin of 4.76% and a return on equity of 8.12%. As a group, research analysts expect that Kennametal will post 1.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Franklin Cardenas sold 20,470 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.24, for a total transaction of $578,072.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 39,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,117,767.44. The trade was a 34.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP John Wayne Witt sold 1,765 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.35, for a total value of $51,802.75. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 1,642 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,192.70. The trade was a 51.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kennametal

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Kennametal by 29.4% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 313,785 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $7,537,000 after purchasing an additional 71,346 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Kennametal by 196.3% during the fourth quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd now owns 43,421 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,043,000 after purchasing an additional 28,768 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of Kennametal by 29.3% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 17,566 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $422,000 after buying an additional 3,978 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in shares of Kennametal in the fourth quarter valued at about $336,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in shares of Kennametal by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 34,614 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $831,000 after buying an additional 609 shares during the period.

About Kennametal

Kennametal Inc engages in development and application of tungsten carbides, ceramics, and super-hard materials and solutions for use in metal cutting and extreme wear applications to enable customers work against corrosion and high temperatures conditions worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Metal Cutting and Infrastructure.