Kadant Reports First Quarter 2025 Results

WESTFORD, Mass., April 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kadant Inc. (NYSE: KAI) reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 29, 2025.

First Quarter Financial Highlights

• Bookings increased 3% to $256 million

• Revenue decreased 4% to $239 million

• Gross margin increased 150 basis points to 46.1%

• Net income decreased 3% to $24 million

• GAAP EPS decreased 3% to $2.04

• Adjusted EPS decreased 12% to $2.10

• Adjusted EBITDA decreased 8% to $48 million and represented 20.0% of revenue

• Operating cash flow remained flat at $23 million

• Free cash flow increased 15% to $19 million
  

Note: Percent changes above are based on comparison to the prior year period. All references to earnings per share (EPS) are to our EPS as calculated on a diluted basis. Adjusted EPS, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, free cash flow, and changes in organic revenue are non-GAAP financial measures that exclude certain items as detailed later in this press release under the heading “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures.”

Management Commentary
“Our first quarter results were in line with expectations across most financial metrics despite the increasing geopolitical and trade uncertainties,” said Jeffrey L. Powell, president and chief executive officer of Kadant Inc. “We had record demand for our aftermarket parts, and our operations teams around the globe once again executed extremely well in a challenging environment. This solid execution contributed to strong margin performance and healthy free cash flow in the first quarter.”

First Quarter 2025 Compared to 2024
Revenue decreased four percent to $239.2 million compared to $249.0 million in 2024. Organic revenue decreased five percent, which excludes a three percent increase from acquisitions and a two percent decrease from the unfavorable effect of foreign currency translation. Gross margin was 46.1 percent, compared to 44.6 percent in 2024.

Net income was $24.1 million, decreasing three percent compared to $24.7 million in 2024. GAAP EPS decreased three percent to $2.04 compared to $2.10 in 2024, while adjusted EPS decreased 12 percent to $2.10 compared to $2.38 in 2024. Adjusted EPS excludes acquisition-related costs of $0.06 in 2025 and $0.28 in 2024.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased eight percent to $47.9 million and represented 20 percent of revenue compared to $52.2 million and 21 percent of revenue in 2024. Operating cash flow was $22.8 million in both 2025 and 2024 and free cash flow increased 15 percent to $19.0 million compared to $16.6 million in 2024.

Bookings increased three percent to $256.2 million compared to $248.4 million in 2024. Organic bookings increased two percent, which excludes a four percent increase from acquisitions and a three percent decrease from the unfavorable effect of foreign currency translation.

Summary and Outlook
"The geopolitical and trade policy uncertainty has impacted our outlook for 2025,” continued Mr. Powell. “Based on the tariffs currently in effect, we estimate incremental tariff costs of $5 to $6 million, or $0.32 to $0.39 per share, in 2025. In addition, economic uncertainty has resulted in some customers delaying large capital projects to later in the year, which has caused the associated revenue to move into 2026. These tariff-related impacts are subject to change based on the outcome of the ongoing tariff negotiations and our tariff mitigation efforts. For 2025, we now expect revenue of $1.020 to $1.040 billion, revised from our previous guidance of $1.040 to $1.065 billion, and GAAP EPS of $8.97 to $9.17, revised from our previous GAAP EPS guidance of $9.63 to $9.98. After excluding $0.08 of acquisition-related costs, we now expect adjusted EPS of $9.05 to $9.25, revised from our previous adjusted EPS guidance of $9.70 to $10.05. For the second quarter of 2025, we expect revenue of $243 to $250 million, GAAP EPS of $1.89 to $1.99 and, after excluding $0.01 of acquisition-related costs, adjusted EPS of $1.90 to $2.00.”

Conference Call
Kadant will hold a webcast with a slide presentation for investors on Wednesday April 30, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its first quarter financial performance, as well as future expectations. To listen to the call live and view the webcast, go to the “Investors” section of the Company’s website at kadant.com. Participants interested in joining the call’s live question and answer session are required to register by clicking here or selecting the Q&A link on our website to receive a dial-in number and unique PIN. It is recommended that you join the call 10 minutes prior to the start of the event. A replay of the webcast presentation will be available on our website through May 30, 2025.

Prior to the call, our earnings release and the slides used in the webcast presentation will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and will be available at sec.gov. After the webcast, Kadant will post its updated general investor presentation incorporating the first quarter results on its website at kadant.com under the “Investors” section.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In addition to the financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including increases or decreases in revenue excluding the effect of acquisitions and foreign currency translation (organic revenue), adjusted operating income, adjusted net income, adjusted EPS, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA margin, and free cash flow.

We use organic revenue to understand our trends and to forecast and evaluate our financial performance and compare revenue to prior periods. Organic revenue excludes revenue from acquisitions for the four quarterly reporting periods following the date of the acquisition and the effect of foreign currency translation. Revenue in the first quarter of 2025 included $8.0 million from acquisitions and an unfavorable foreign currency translation effect of $5.8 million compared to the first quarter of 2024. Our other non-GAAP financial measures exclude amortization expense related to acquired profit in inventory and backlog, acquisition costs, and other income or expense, as indicated. Collectively, these items are excluded as they are not indicative of our core operating results and are not comparable to other periods, which have differing levels of incremental costs, expenditures or income, or none at all. Additionally, we use free cash flow in order to provide insight on our ability to generate cash for acquisitions and debt repayments, as well as for other investing and financing activities.

We believe these non-GAAP financial measures, when taken together with the corresponding GAAP financial measures, provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our core business, operating results, or future outlook. We believe that the inclusion of such measures helps investors gain an understanding of our underlying operating performance and future prospects, consistent with how management measures and forecasts our performance, especially when comparing such results to previous periods or forecasts and to the performance of our competitors. Such measures are also used by us in our financial and operating decision-making and for compensation purposes. We also believe this information is responsive to investors' requests and gives them additional measures of our performance.

The non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release are not meant to be considered superior to or a substitute for the results of operations or cash flows prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, the non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release have limitations associated with their use as compared to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, in that they may be different from, and therefore not comparable to, similar measures used by other companies.

First Quarter

Adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA margin exclude:

• Pre-tax amortization of acquired profit in inventory and backlog of $0.4 million in 2025 and $3.1 million in 2024.

• Pre-tax acquisition costs of $0.3 million in 2025 and $1.1 million in 2024.

• Pre-tax indemnification asset reversal of $0.1 million in 2024.
  

Adjusted net income and adjusted EPS exclude:

• After-tax amortization of acquired profit in inventory and backlog of $0.3 million ($0.4 million net of tax of $0.1 million) in 2025 and $2.4 million ($3.1 million net of tax of $0.7 million) in 2024.

• After-tax acquisition costs of $0.3 million in 2025 and $0.9 million ($1.1 million net of tax of $0.2 million) in 2024.

Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow less:

• Capital expenditures of $3.8 million in 2025 and $6.3 million in 2024.
  

Reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are set forth in this press release.

About Kadant
Kadant Inc. is a global supplier of technologies and engineered systems that drive Sustainable Industrial Processing^®. The Company’s products and services play an integral role in enhancing efficiency, optimizing energy utilization, and maximizing productivity in process industries. Kadant is based in Westford, Massachusetts, with approximately 3,500 employees in 20 countries worldwide. For more information, visit kadant.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
The following constitutes a “Safe Harbor” statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including forward-looking statements about our future financial and operating performance, demand for our products, and economic and industry outlook. These forward-looking statements represent our expectations as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” in Kadant’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2024 and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These include risks and uncertainties relating to adverse changes in global and local economic conditions; the variability and difficulty in accurately predicting revenues from large capital equipment and systems projects; our acquisition strategy; levels of residential construction activity; reductions by our wood processing customers of their capital spending or production of oriented strand board; changes to the global timber supply; development and use of digital media; cyclical economic conditions affecting the global mining industry; demand for coal, including economic and environmental risks associated with coal; failure of our information systems or breaches of data security and cybersecurity incidents; implementation of our internal growth strategy; competition; our ability to successfully manage our manufacturing operations; supply chain constraints, inflationary pressure, price increases or shortages in raw materials; loss of key personnel and effective succession planning; future restructurings; protection of intellectual property; changes to tax laws and regulations; climate change; adequacy of our insurance coverage; global operations; policies of the Chinese government; the variability and uncertainties in sales of capital equipment in China; currency fluctuations; changes to government regulations and policies around the world; compliance with government regulations and policies and compliance with laws; environmental laws and regulations; environmental, health and safety laws and regulations impacting the mining industry; our debt obligations; restrictions in our credit agreement and note purchase agreement; soundness of financial institutions; fluctuations in our share price; and anti-takeover provisions.

Contacts
Investor Contact Information:
Michael McKenney, 978-776-2000
IR@kadant.com

Media Contact Information:
Wes Martz, 269-278-1715
media@kadant.com