Sifting through countless of stocks in the Machinery industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Pentair plc or Kadant Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Pentair plc and Kadant Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Pentair plc and Kadant Inc.

Pentair plc provides various water solutions in the United States, Western Europe, China, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Flow, Water Solutions, and Pool. The Flow segment designs, manufactures, and sells fluid treatment and pump products and systems, including pressure vessels, gas recovery solutions, membrane bioreactors, wastewater reuse systems and advanced membrane filtration, separation systems, specialty insertion valves, water disposal pumps, water supply pumps, fluid transfer pumps, turbine pumps, solid handling pumps, and agricultural spray nozzles. This segment provides products under Pentair Flow, Aurora, Berkeley, Codeline, Fairbanks-Nijhuis, Haffmans, Hydromatic, Hypro, Jung Pumpen, Myers, Sta-Rite, Shurflo, Südmo, and X-Flow brand names. The Water Solutions segment offers commercial and residential water treatment products and systems, such as pressure tanks, control valves, activated carbon products, commercial ice machines, conventional filtration products, and point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment systems for use in water filtration and water softening solutions, as well as commercial water management and filtration solutions in foodservice operations; and installation and preventative services for water management solutions for commercial operators under the Pentair Water Solutions, Everpure, Fleck, Manitowoc Ice, Pentek, and RainSoft brands. The Pool segment provides residential and commercial pool equipment and accessories, including pumps, filters, heaters, lights, automatic controls and cleaners, chlorinators, maintenance equipment, and pool accessories for residential and commercial pool maintenance, pool repair, renovation, service, construction, and aquaculture solutions. This segment offers products under the Pentair Pool, Kreepy Krauly, Pleatco, and Sta-Rite brands. Pentair plc was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Kadant Inc. supplies technologies and engineered systems worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Flow Control, Industrial Processing, and Material Handling. The Flow Control segment develops, manufactures, and markets fluid-handling systems, equipment, and integrated technologies, such as rotary joints, syphons, Turbulator bars, expansion joints, and engineered steam and condensate systems, as well as doctor systems and holders, doctor blades, cleaning showers and fabric-conditioning systems, forming systems and wear surfaces, and water-filtration systems. The Industrial Processing segment provides ring and rotary debarkers, stranders, chippers, engineered knife systems, and industrial automation and control products. This segment also offers recycling and approach flow systems, virgin pulping process equipment, boiler cleaning technologies, and single and double-screw presses. The Material Handling segment provides vibratory and conveying equipment; individual components and equipment for baling recyclable and waste materials; and fiber-based products. It sells its products and services through direct sales, independent sales agents, and distributors. The company was formerly known as Thermo Fibertek, Inc. and changed its name to Kadant Inc. in July 2001. Kadant Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts.

Latest Machinery and Pentair plc, Kadant Inc. Stock News

As of July 31, 2026, Pentair plc had a $10.4 billion market capitalization, compared to the Machinery median of $3.9 million. Pentair plc’s stock is down 37.2% in 2026, up 4.1% in the previous five trading days and down 35.4% in the past year.

Currently, Pentair plc’s price-earnings ratio is 16.9. Pentair plc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.0 billion with a 16.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was -17.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $4.647 per share for the current fiscal year. Pentair plc currently has a 1.7% dividend yield.

As of July 31, 2026, Kadant Inc. had a $3.6 billion market cap, putting it in the 62nd percentile of all stocks. Kadant Inc.’s stock is up 7.9% in 2026, down 1.6% in the previous five trading days and down 14.25% in the past year.

Currently, Kadant Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 35.1. Kadant Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.1 billion with a 9.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 17.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $11.870 per share for the current fiscal year. Kadant Inc. currently has a 0.5% dividend yield.

How We Compare Pentair plc and Kadant Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Pentair plc and Kadant Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Pentair plc and Kadant Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Pentair plc	PNR	C
Kadant Inc.	KAI	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Pentair plc has a Value Score of 47, which is Average. Kadant Inc. has a Value Score of 25, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Pentair plc or Kadant Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Pentair plc or Kadant Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

Pentair plc and Kadant Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Pentair plc	PNR	A
Kadant Inc.	KAI	B

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Pentair plc has a Quality Score of 91, which is Very Strong. Kadant Inc. has a Quality Score of 74, which is Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: Pentair plc

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, Pentair plc has a better overall quality grade than Kadant Inc.. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, Pentair plc could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Pentair plc and Kadant Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
Pentair plc	PNR	C
Kadant Inc.	KAI	B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Pentair plc has a Earnings Estimate Score of 42, which is Neutral. Kadant Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 63, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: Kadant Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, Kadant Inc. has a better Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade than Pentair plc. For those who are specifically looking for companies with better short-term prospects when compared to other companies in the same industry, Kadant Inc. could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Pentair plc and Kadant Inc. Grades

In addition to Quality, Estimate Revisions and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Momentum.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Pentair plc and Kadant Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Pentair plc or Kadant Inc. Stock?

Overall, Pentair plc stock has a Value Score of 47, Estimate Revisions Score of 42 and Quality Score of 91.

Kadant Inc. stock has a Value Score of 25, Estimate Revisions Score of 63 and Quality Score of 74.

Comparing Pentair plc and Kadant Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.