Is the business good?
How good a business is KAI?
Kadant Inc. earns 10% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
10%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 1.3 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 15%
Operating margin · Specialty Industrial Machinery median 15% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.49×
Cash conversion · 1.23× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- +0.22%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 13% |
| FY2021 | 15% |
| FY2022 | 19% |
| FY2023 | 17% |
| FY2024 | 16% |
| FY2025 | 15% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 45%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 15%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 9.4%
- Free cash flow margin
- 14%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 1.4%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $1.09B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $154M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $103M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 10%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Specialty Industrial Machinery
Ranks #40 of 44 by Smart Score