Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 2026
Kadant Inc (KAI)
A forensic read on Kadant Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
C · Mixed — selective
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
9.2
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
38.5
P / E (ttm)
10.4%
ROE
$3.9B
Market cap
0.43%
Dividend yield
-0.1%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Kadant Inc earns a C (Mixed — selective) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 9.2, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by inventory days.
What the filings flag
131d
FY2024→FY2026
Inventory days.Days inventory outstanding moved from 91 to 131 FY2024→FY2026 (against cost of goods sold; inventory +42% vs -2% in cost of sales). Inventory is outrunning what's being sold — a flag for softening demand or obsolescence risk ahead. FY2024 and FY2026 aren't consecutive filed years here, so FY2026's opening balance can't be taken from FY2024 — both figures are measured on period-end balances rather than the beginning-plus-ending average, which keeps the two endpoints comparable to each other.
+17.0%
FY2024→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +17.0% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by inventory up +42% against -2% in cost of sales and receivables up +11% against revenue -0%. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 6% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
8.3%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 8.3% in the latest fiscal year and slipping from 15% — around its ~9% cost of capital, so growth is roughly value-neutral.
+0.2%/yr
FY2022–FY2026
Share count.Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 4 years to FY2026 (+0.2%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.05B
Revenue Growth YoY-0.1%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+4.8%
Net Margin9.7%
Free Cash Flow$154.3M
Return on Equity10.4%
Debt / Equity0.38x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Kadant Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Goodwill impairments.Took $29,000 of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2022 ($29,000)) — about 0% of net income over the span. Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.