Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) Given Average Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation and four have given a hold recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $26.17.

KMT has been the subject of several research reports. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of Kennametal from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Kennametal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Kennametal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of Kennametal from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $26.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, October 18th.

Kennametal Price Performance

NYSE KMT opened at $27.26 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $25.52. The company has a current ratio of 2.52, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Kennametal has a 12-month low of $22.50 and a 12-month high of $32.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.65.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.03. Kennametal had a net margin of 4.98% and a return on equity of 8.35%. The business had revenue of $481.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $485.26 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Kennametal will post 1.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kennametal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.93%. Kennametal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.50%.

Insider Activity at Kennametal

In related news, VP John Wayne Witt sold 1,765 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.35, for a total transaction of $51,802.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 1,642 shares in the company, valued at $48,192.70. The trade was a 51.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Franklin Cardenas sold 20,470 shares of Kennametal 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 transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Kennametal in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Kennametal by 19.3% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 22,402 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $581,000 after buying an additional 3,627 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Kennametal in the third quarter valued at $342,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Kennametal by 1.0% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,815,939 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $47,096,000 after buying an additional 17,265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its holdings in Kennametal by 95.6% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 163,670 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,244,000 after buying an additional 79,992 shares in the last quarter.

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.