Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Cuts Stake in Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its holdings in shares of Kennametal Inc. (NYSE:KMT) by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,700 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 1,900 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Kennametal were worth $978,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in KMT. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Kennametal by 85.3% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 87,340 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,178,000 after acquiring an additional 40,193 shares in the last quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in Kennametal in the 1st quarter worth approximately $324,000. Easterly Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Kennametal by 39.8% during the 1st quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC now owns 32,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $802,000 after purchasing an additional 9,166 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its stake in Kennametal by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 69,376 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,730,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Duality Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of Kennametal by 85.8% in the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 21,443 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $535,000 after buying an additional 9,902 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on KMT shares. Bank of America lowered shares of Kennametal from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, October 18th. Loop Capital increased their price objective on Kennametal from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded Kennametal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Kennametal from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Kennametal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $24.60.

Kennametal Stock Performance

NYSE KMT opened at $25.52 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.63, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.64. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 2.41. Kennametal Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.38 and a fifty-two week high of $27.04.

Kennametal (NYSE:KMT) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Kennametal had a return on equity of 9.17% and a net margin of 5.34%. The company had revenue of $543.31 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $532.72 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. Kennametal’s quarterly revenue was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Kennametal Inc. will post 1.43 earnings per share for the current year.

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.