Kadant (KAI) Competitors

Kadant (NYSE:KAI) and Pentair (NYSE:PNR) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, community ranking, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk and media sentiment.

Is KAI or PNR more profitable?

Pentair has a net margin of 15.32% compared to Kadant's net margin of 10.59%. Pentair's return on equity of 20.94% beat Kadant's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kadant	10.59%	14.66%	8.33%
Pentair	15.32%	20.94%	11.05%

Does the media refer more to KAI or PNR?

In the previous week, Pentair had 13 more articles in the media than Kadant. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for Pentair and 13 mentions for Kadant. Pentair's average media sentiment score of 1.28 beat Kadant's score of 0.99 indicating that Pentair is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Kadant	8 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Pentair	17 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is KAI or PNR a better dividend stock?

Kadant pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Pentair pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Kadant pays out 14.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pentair pays out 26.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Kadant has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate KAI or PNR?

Kadant presently has a consensus target price of $355.00, indicating a potential upside of 2.64%. Pentair has a consensus target price of $112.27, indicating a potential upside of 24.71%. Given Pentair's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Pentair is more favorable than Kadant.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kadant	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Pentair	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.94

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer KAI or PNR?

Pentair received 344 more outperform votes than Kadant when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 58.20% of users gave Kadant an outperform vote while only 57.44% of users gave Pentair an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Kadant	Outperform Votes 316 58.20%	Underperform Votes 227 41.80%
Pentair	Outperform Votes 660 57.44%	Underperform Votes 489 42.56%

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, KAI or PNR?

Pentair has higher revenue and earnings than Kadant. Pentair is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kadant, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kadant	$1.05B	3.86	$111.60M	$9.48	36.48
Pentair	$4.08B	3.63	$625.40M	$3.74	24.07

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in KAI or PNR?

96.1% of Kadant shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Pentair shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Kadant shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Pentair shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, KAI or PNR?

Kadant has a beta of 1.25, suggesting that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pentair has a beta of 1.23, suggesting that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pentair beats Kadant on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.