Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) Short Interest Up 8.4% in September

17 Oct 2024, 01:50 by Danessa Lincoln · The Markets Daily

Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT – Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,290,000 shares, an increase of 8.4% from the September 15th total of 5,800,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 740,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 8.5 days. Approximately 8.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on KMT. StockNews.com lowered Kennametal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on Kennametal from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Kennametal from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.00.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on KMT

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of Kennametal by 198.9% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,058 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 704 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in Kennametal in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Kennametal in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Kennametal in the 2nd quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC increased its position in Kennametal by 2,552.0% in the 1st quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 2,705 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 2,603 shares in the last quarter.

Kennametal Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KMT traded up $0.71 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $26.05. 788,029 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 671,969. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Kennametal has a twelve month low of $22.08 and a twelve month high of $27.04. The company has a market cap of $2.05 billion, a PE ratio of 19.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.65. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.76.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $543.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $532.72 million. Kennametal had a return on equity of 9.17% and a net margin of 5.34%. Kennametal’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Kennametal will post 1.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kennametal Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. Kennametal’s payout ratio is presently 59.26%.

About Kennametal

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