American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 308,000 Shares of Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) by 13.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,543,973 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 308,000 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 3.27% of Kennametal worth $61,106,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Kennametal by 45.9% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,458 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC lifted its stake in Kennametal by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 18,512 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $445,000 after acquiring an additional 672 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Kennametal by 120.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 716 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Kennametal by 50.3% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,351 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Kennametal in the third quarter valued at about $30,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on KMT. Barclays set a $25.00 target price on shares of Kennametal and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Kennametal from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Kennametal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $40.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Kennametal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.60.

Kennametal Stock Down 1.2 %

KMT opened at $22.21 on Wednesday. Kennametal Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.50 and a 12 month high of $32.18. The company has a market cap of $1.72 billion, a PE ratio of 18.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a 50 day moving average of $22.61 and a 200 day moving average of $24.90.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by ($0.02). Kennametal had a return on equity of 8.12% and a net margin of 4.76%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Kennametal Inc. will post 1.17 EPS for the current year.

Kennametal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.60%. Kennametal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.57%.

Insider Transactions at Kennametal

In other Kennametal news, CEO Sanjay Chowbey bought 10,000 shares of Kennametal stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $21.75 per share, for a total transaction of $217,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 77,595 shares in the company, valued at $1,687,691.25. This represents a 14.79 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.41% of the company’s stock.

Kennametal 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.