# Kadant share price today (Kadant Inc., KAI)

> Kadant Inc.'s share price, valuation and earnings point in different directions. The next one or two quarters should make it clearer. KAI · Industrials · Specialty Industrial Machinery · data as of 3 November 2026. Page: https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/kai

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## Key numbers

- Business trend: Mixed, from the last 12 quarters
- Price: $282.79 (+2.2% in a year)
- P/E: 30.4× (lower than 52% of the last 4.6 years)
- Revenue (Jul 2026): $313 M (+22.6% on a year ago)
- Profit (Jul 2026): $32.8 M (+23.3% on a year ago)
- Operating margin: 16.8% (+1.0 points on a year ago)
- ROE: 11%, FY26
- ROIC: 9.8%, against a 9.8% cost of capital: +0.0 points

Biggest thing to watch: the price is not yet in a clear uptrend, so timing is the risk more than the business. ## What is the Kadant share price today? Kadant Inc.'s share price was $282.79 at the close on 3 November 2026. It has been falling for 3 weeks. That is 7.6% below its average price over the last 200 trading days. In the last 52 weeks it traded between $255 and $343, and at that close it sat 32% of the way up from that low. Over the past 13 weeks it has done worse than the S&P 500, and it has been behind for 12 weeks running. Over the last 10 years the share price moved +433% while the S&P 500 moved +255%, so it is ahead of the index over that whole period. It was last ahead over 13 weeks in the week of 14 August 2026. The chart above shows the 13-week comparison for every week. This page treats a rise as over when the price closes below its 200-day average on two Fridays in a row. ## What dividend does Kadant pay? Kadant Inc. paid $1.40 per share over the last four reported quarters. The most recent declaration was $0.36 for Jul 2026. At today's price of $282.79 that is a yield of 0.50%, based on dividends already paid, not a forecast. ## Which stock lists is Kadant on? Kadant is not in the Nasdaq 100, the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones 30, and is not on the US tech stocks list. ## Is Kadant profitable? Kadant Inc. earned $32.8 M of net profit in the Jul 2026 quarter, +23.3% on the same quarter a year earlier. That is the 2nd quarter in a row of profit growth. Full-year FY26 profit was $104 M. Over 4 years profit has grown 5.1% a year on average. That is 10.5% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned $26.6 M. For the full year, FY26 profit was $104 M (−7.9% on the year before). Why profit moved: revenue changed +22.6% on a year earlier and the margin moved +1.0 percentage points. Sales did the work, and the margin was about flat. On average over the last four quarters, profit changed +5.7% and revenue +13.4%. Profit is growing slower than sales: rising costs are taking part of the growth. ## How much revenue does Kadant make, and is it growing? Kadant Inc. reported $313 M of revenue in the Jul 2026 quarter, +22.6% on the same quarter a year earlier. That is the 2nd quarter in a row with growth on the year before. Over 4 years it has grown 7.5% a year on average. The last full year, FY26, came in at $1.1 B. The last four reported quarters add to $1.2 B. FY26 revenue was $1.1 B, −0.1% on the year before. Recent pace: the last four quarters grew +13.4% on average, against 7.5% a year over the longer run, so this year is growing faster than its own long-run rate. Is growth speeding up? Revenue over the last 12 months grew +12.5%, against +7.0% a year over the last 8 quarters (accelerating); profit over the last 12 months grew +3.9%, against −1.7% a year (accelerating). ## How much of every $100 of sales does Kadant keep? Kadant Inc.'s operating margin was 16.8% in the Jul 2026 quarter, 1.0 percentage points higher than the same quarter a year ago. Across 5 years it has been between 15.6% and 17.6%. The latest quarter is within that range. Why the margin moved: operating margin changed +1.0 percentage points on the year while gross margin changed −1.7 points. So the gain came mostly from the gross margin, which means input costs and prices charged. ## Is Kadant's profit turning into cash? Over the last 3 years, 148% of Kadant Inc.'s reported profit came in as cash from its operations, so the profit is backed by cash. In FY26 it brought in $171 M of operating cash against $104 M of profit. After $17.0 M of spending on assets, $154 M was left over as free cash. Cash-flow figures here are yearly, because quarterly cash statements are not published, so this section changes once a year. Why: the cash figure is clear, but the day counts behind it are not in our data, so we show it without guessing the reason. What to look at next: the main use of cash is spending on assets. The next section checks what that spending is building. ## Where does Kadant's cash go? Kadant Inc. does not report the customer, stock and supplier day counts a cash cycle needs, so this section looks at its spending on assets instead. It spent $69.9 M on assets over the last 3 years. Averaged over those years that is 2.2% of FY26 revenue a year. Nothing is estimated in place of the missing day counts, so no cash-cycle chart is drawn. Spending on assets: $69.9 M over the last 3 years. In short: the cash is going into new capacity, not getting stuck in the daily cycle. The question is whether the new capacity earns. ## What is Kadant's P/E ratio, and how does it compare with its own history? Kadant Inc.'s P/E is 30.4×, in the middle of its own history: higher than 48% of past readings. Its usual P/E (the middle reading) is 30.8×, over 4.6 years of weekly prices. This compares the share price with the company’s own past. It does not say what the business is worth. Why the multiple is where it is: over the past year earnings per share moved −8.8% while the price moved +2.2%. The price did better than earnings, which pushed the multiple up within its own range. Where the price move came from: over 3 years the price moved +5.0% a year; about −1.7% a year came from earnings growth and about +6.7 percentage points from the multiple (the market paying more). The split is approximate (price return minus earnings growth). It shows how much of the move came from the market paying a different multiple. In short: the multiple is about average against its own past, so the earnings trend underneath matters more than the multiple. ## Is the Kadant business getting better or worse? Kadant Inc.'s business is giving mixed signals. There is no clear direction across the growth lines, with ROCE steady at 12.4%; each line tells part of the story. This is based on 12 quarters of 4 measures. Why it matters: when the lines disagree, each line above matters more than any single label. ## How much does Kadant earn on its capital? Kadant Inc. earned a ROE of 11% in FY26. Its return on capital used (ROIC) is 0.0 percentage points above its cost of capital, so growth here does not yet pay for the capital it uses. It comes from a 9.9% net margin and 0.61× asset turnover (sales divided by assets). Why the return is what it is (FY26): a 9.9% net margin × 0.61× asset turnover × 1.73× leverage (assets divided by equity) ≈ 10.4% on equity. The margin does its share; borrowing is a big part of it. The key test, return on capital used minus the cost of capital: 9.8% − 9.8% = +0.0 percentage points. The 9.8% is an estimate of this company's own cost of capital. Read the sign and size of the gap, not the decimals. Negative: growth at these returns loses value until returns improve. ## Does Kadant have too much debt? Kadant Inc. has total debt of $511 M against shareholder equity of $1.0 B as of Jul 2026, so its debt is 0.49× its equity. Year by year, that ratio went from 0.52 in FY22 to 0.42 in FY26. Keep that borrowing in mind when reading the returns on this page. ## What is the Kadant shareholding pattern? 7.7% of Kadant Inc.'s tradable shares are in short positions, which are bets that the price will fall, so some traders are betting against it. At normal trading volumes, closing those positions would take about 5.9 days. US companies do not publish a quarter-by-quarter list of owners, so this page uses short interest instead. It is a single reading at one point in time; we do not have its history. Why it is at this level: the figure does not say who holds the short positions or why, so we show the level without guessing the story. ## How far is Kadant from balance-sheet trouble? For Kadant Inc., the Z-score is 4.46. A Z-score above about 3 is safe and below about 1.8 signals danger, so this is well clear of danger. It estimates how far the balance sheet is from trouble; it is not a forecast of failure. Why it matters: a Z-score of 4.46 is well clear of the danger zone, so the balance sheet is not the risk here. ## How does Kadant rank in its industry? There is no score against its industry: Kadant Inc. is not among the largest members shown in this industry comparison for Specialty Industrial Machinery. The score ranks a company within its industry: each measure is scored against the other members. Without that group there is no score, so none is shown. ## Which companies is Kadant compared with? No sector comparison is shown here, not among the largest members shown in this industry comparison. ## Which companies are close to Kadant in size? Kadant is the 36th largest of 57 Specialty Industrial Machinery companies on Sector Alpha by market value (scores of 3 November 2026). Just above it: Franklin Electric Co., Inc., Mueller Water Products, Inc. and Crane NXT, Co. Just below it: Standex International Corporation, NuScale Power Corporation and Helios Technologies, Inc. ### Specialty Industrial Machinery companies close in size

1. [Franklin Electric Co., Inc.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/fele) $4.5 billion
2. [Mueller Water Products, Inc.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/mwa) $3.7 billion
3. [Crane NXT, Co.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/cxt) $3.5 billion
4. Kadant Inc. $3.3 billion
5. [Standex International Corporation](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/sxi) $3.1 billion
6. [NuScale Power Corporation](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/smr) $2.3 billion
7. [Helios Technologies, Inc.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/hlio) $2.3 billion

[All 57 Specialty Industrial Machinery companies, largest first](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/sectors/specialty-industrial-machinery#all-companies)

### Companies close in size in other industries

1. [Corporación Inmobiliaria Vesta, S.A.B. de C.V.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/vtmx) $3.4 billion · Real Estate - Development
2. [Orla Mining Ltd.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/orla) $3.4 billion · Gold
3. Kadant Inc. $3.3 billion
4. [Baytex Energy Corp.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/bte) $3.3 billion · Oil & Gas Exploration & Production
5. [Golub Capital BDC, Inc.](https://www.sectoralpha.in/us/stocks/gbdc) $3.3 billion · Asset Management

## What else do people ask about Kadant? ### What were Kadant's latest quarterly results? Kadant Inc. reported revenue of $313 M and net profit of $32.8 M for the Jul 2026 quarter. Revenue rose 22.6% and profit rose 23.3% compared with a year earlier. Earnings per share were $2.75. The operating margin was 16.8%, 1.0 percentage points higher than a year earlier (as of 3 November 2026). ### What is Kadant's market cap? Kadant Inc.'s market capitalisation is $3.3 B at a stock price of $282.79. Market cap is the share price times the number of shares, so it changes whenever the price moves (as of 3 November 2026). ### How is Kadant performing? Kadant Inc.'s share price has been falling for 3 weeks. In its latest quarter, revenue rose 22.6% and profit rose 23.3% compared with a year earlier. Over the past 13 weeks it has done worse than the S&P 500, for 12 weeks running (as of 3 November 2026). ### Will Kadant's stock price go up? This page does not forecast Kadant Inc.'s stock price. What it shows instead: the stock price is $282.79, and it has been falling for 3 weeks. Its P/E of 30.4× is higher than 48% of its own last 5 years (as of 3 November 2026). ### Where is Kadant in its business cycle? Kadant Inc.'s FY26 operating margin was 15.6%, against a 5-year range of 15.6% to 17.6%: the low end of its own range, which is often where recoveries start. The latest quarter was 16.8%. Comparing margins with a company's own long history is a good way to see where it is in its cycle (as of 3 November 2026). ### What could break the Kadant story? Biggest thing to watch: the price is not yet in a clear uptrend, so timing is the risk more than the business. On price, this page treats a rise as over when the share price closes below its 200-day average on two Fridays in a row (as of 3 November 2026). ### Is Kadant a stock worth studying right now? What the numbers show: Kadant Inc.'s share price, valuation and earnings point in different directions. The next one or two quarters should make it clearer. The main open question: the next one or two quarters of results. Every number on this page is worked out by code from the published figures, with no forecasts and no price opinions (as of 3 November 2026). This is research, not advice. We’re not SEBI-registered.