Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) saw a large increase in short interest in 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 daily trading volume, of 740,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 8.5 days. Approximately 8.2% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on KMT shares. Barclays boosted their target price on Kennametal from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Kennametal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Loop Capital raised their price objective on shares of Kennametal from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Kennametal currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Kennametal Stock Up 2.8 %

KMT stock opened at $26.05 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 1.65. 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 1-year low of $22.08 and a 1-year high of $27.04. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $25.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.76.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $543.31 million during 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 period last year, the company earned $0.51 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Kennametal will post 1.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kennametal Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kennametal

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of KMT. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in Kennametal by 0.9% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 69,376 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,730,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in Kennametal by 1.5% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 45,515 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 684 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its position in shares of Kennametal by 198.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,058 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 704 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Kennametal by 6.2% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 16,069 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $401,000 after purchasing an additional 945 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Kennametal by 46.7% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,049 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 970 shares during the period.

Kennametal Company Profile

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.