NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 12:54 ET — Regular session
Shares of Kadant Inc NYSE:KAI fell 2.9% to $286.94 by 12:54 p.m. ET on Wednesday, extending a year-end slide for the industrial machinery maker. The stock opened at $295.22 and traded between $286.94 and $298.00, with about 110,393 shares changing hands.
The move came as U.S. stocks drifted lower in holiday-thinned trading, with the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust down about 0.3%, the Invesco QQQ Trust off 0.3% and the Dow-tracking DIA ETF down 0.3%.
This is the final U.S. trading session of 2025, a stretch that often sees sharper moves when liquidity is light and investors rebalance portfolios. The “Santa Claus rally” — the last five trading days of the year and the first two of January — has yet to show up, and markets are shut on Thursday for New Year’s Day, Reuters reported. “Describing 2025 as ‘resilient’ might be an understatement,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial. Reuters
Kadant supplies engineered systems and components used in process industries, including equipment for paper recycling and wood processing.
Kadant’s decline outpaced some industrial peers on Wednesday. Albany International fell 1.3%, SPX Technologies slipped 0.8% and Dover was down 0.8%.
Tuesday’s closing price of $295.42 left the stock well below its 52-week high of $409.73, while the 52-week low stands at $244.87.
That late-year floor near $245 is the level many chart-focused traders keep on the screen, even after Wednesday’s pullback. A break below it would put the stock near fresh lows for the year.
Macro focus is shifting to the Federal Reserve’s next meeting on Jan. 27-28 after minutes from its December gathering showed a debate over risks to the U.S. economy. Markets have been pricing in no change at that meeting, Reuters reported.
For income-focused investors, Kadant has a dividend milestone coming up early in 2026. The company’s board approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.34 per share, payable Feb. 5, 2026, to stockholders of record as of Jan. 8, 2026, it said in a Nov. 13 release.
On Wall Street, analysts tracked by MarketBeat have an average 12-month price target of $340 for Kadant shares.
Kadant is expected to report earnings in February, though the company has not confirmed the date, according to MarketBeat estimates.
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