KENNAMETAL INC 401(k): Fidelity, match 6% max
Kennametal Thrift Plus Plan · KMT · CIK 55242
Fidelity Investments is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for this plan, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
6%
KENNAMETAL INC matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026 ↗, covering the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Page data last updated July 28, 2026, when the Form 5500 bulk data was last refreshed. Why filings lag
On this page: what the employer actually paid in · the formula, word for word · when the money becomes yours · who can join · who holds your account · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
What KENNAMETAL puts in, and what the plan costs
What KENNAMETAL put into the plan, per active participant
$4,684
KENNAMETAL INC put $4,684 into this plan for each of its 2,708 active participants in plan year 2024. This is the whole employer side of the plan: matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions, and reallocated forfeitures. The Form 5500 does not separate them, so this is what the employer put in and not the match.
KENNAMETAL put in more per active participant than 79% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants in medical devices and other manufacturing. The middle plan in that group of 206 reported $2,911. Medical devices and other manufacturing comes from business code 339900, which KENNAMETAL entered on its own Form 5500. Sponsors pick that code themselves, so a code that does not describe what the employer does ranks the plan against the wrong companies.
What this figure cannot separate: how much KENNAMETAL pays, and how much it puts in
This is dollars, not a rate. A Form 5500 carries no payroll, so the figure reflects both how much the employer puts in and how much the employer pays: two plans running the same formula report different amounts when one pays better. Crossing the peer group with industry holds most of that difference still, and none of it disappears.
This is one plan year, not an average. A true-up, a plan merger or a one-off contribution moves a single year on its own.
Source: DOL Form 5500 for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, EIN 250900168, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $4,684 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. KENNAMETAL INC also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,970 a year at a $49,500 salary. That second figure is what the formula pays one worker on that salary, and not an amount either filing reports. The two figures cover different plan years and measure different things, so neither one is the other one corrected.
What KENNAMETAL puts in
$2,970
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Plan provides for Company matching contributions of 100% of employee contributions, up to 6% of eligible compensation. The Plan includes a safe harbor plan design for purposes of the Plan's nondiscrimination testing.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 6% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,970 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
100 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 48% of the 369 schedules we have scored.
It measures vesting speed and nothing else. It says nothing about the size of the match, what the plan charges, or the funds inside it.
Share of the employer's money that is the worker's at hire and at each of the first 6 anniversaries: 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Employee contributions are fully vested. Effective January 1, 2017, all Company contributions immediately vest as of the participant's employment date.”
The wait before the match starts and the year-end true-up appear above when the filing states them. Neither is part of the score, and a filing that is silent on one of them is not a plan without it.
What the plan costs, against plans of its size
75th percentile
$129.38 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 75% of plans with 1,000–4,999 participants.
What is KENNAMETAL's 401(k) match formula?
KENNAMETAL's 401(k) employer match tops out at 6% of pay. The match is deposited each payroll. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 6% of compensation |
| Deposited | Each payroll |
| Paid in company stock | Yes |
At a $75,000 salary, contributing 6% ($4,500) earns the full employer match of $4,500 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Plan provides for Company matching contributions of 100% of employee contributions, up to 6% of eligible compensation. The Plan includes a safe harbor plan design for purposes of the Plan's nondiscrimination testing.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is KENNAMETAL's 401(k) vesting schedule?
KENNAMETAL vests the employer match immediately: 100% is yours as soon as it is paid in. Nothing is forfeited when you leave, which is not true of the two schedules that vest over time.
| Employer match vesting | Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
Vesting, word for word
“Employee contributions are fully vested. Effective January 1, 2017, all Company contributions immediately vest as of the participant's employment date.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join KENNAMETAL's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
KENNAMETAL enrolls new hires automatically at 3% of pay, rising 1% a year.
| Plan entry | All regular U.S. non-union employees and union employees in a bargaining unit that negotiated for participation in the Plan become eligible to participate in the Plan on the first day of the first payroll period subsequent to their employment date. |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr; default investment: a designated fund (target fund not otherwise specified) |
Eligibility, word for word
“All regular U.S. non-union employees and union employees in a bargaining unit that negotiated for participation in the Plan become eligible to participate in the Plan on the first day of the first payroll period subsequent to their employment date.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“The Plan includes an auto-enrollment provision whereby all newly eligible employees are automatically enrolled in the Plan unless they affirmatively elect to not participate in the Plan. Automatically enrolled participants have their deferral rate set at 3% of eligible compensation and their contributions invested in a designated fund until changed by the participant. The Plan also includes a provision whereby all eligible employees are automatically enrolled in the annual increase program whereby their deferral rate is increased by 1% annually, subject to plan limits. Participants can opt out of the program and make changes to the deferral increase percentage.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Fidelity Investments, filed as “FIDELITY INV. INST. OPS. CO.”. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to. The trustee that holds the plan’s assets can be a different company, and this filing does not name it.
Participants log in at Fidelity NetBenefits ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Fidelity Investments or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Fidelity Investments |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 042647786 |
What does the KENNAMETAL plan report on Form 5500?
The KENNAMETAL plan reported $594.5M in assets and 4,613 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $594,525,014 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 4,613 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $129.38 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $129.38 per participant. The median across plans in medical devices and other manufacturing is $125.72, from the 1,386 of 1,455 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Read from the Form 5500 filing of Kennametal Thrift Plus Plan, which has no page of its own here.
How does KENNAMETAL's 401(k) match compare?
KENNAMETAL INC's maximum 401(k) match of 6% of pay compares with a median of 4% across the 269 companies in our data with a computable formula.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in medical devices and other manufacturing, two land near KENNAMETAL's maximum match and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in medical devices and other manufacturing.
Maximum match 7% of pay. Also in medical devices and other manufacturing.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in medical devices and other manufacturing.
Maximum match 6% of pay, level with KENNAMETAL.
Maximum match 6% of pay, level with KENNAMETAL.
Maximum match 3% of pay. Vests immediately too, like KENNAMETAL.
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 26, 2026, SEC EDGAR. Every match fact on this page comes from it.
- Changed jobs? Find an old 401(k) ↗
The Department of Labor's Retirement Savings Lost & Found, a free government database.
- This year's IRS contribution limits ↗
The official deferral and catch-up limits every formula operates under.
Questions this filing answers
What is KENNAMETAL INC's 401(k) match?
Kennametal Inc matches 100% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the KENNAMETAL INC 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does KENNAMETAL INC's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 3% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr; default investment: a designated fund (target fund not otherwise specified).
Who is the recordkeeper for KENNAMETAL INC's 401(k)?
Fidelity Investments is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Kennametal Thrift Plus Plan for plan year 2024. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to.
Source
The match formula, the vesting schedule and the enrollment rules on this page were read from one document: the Form 11-K annual report that KENNAMETAL INC filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each of those fields carries the filing sentence it was read from, expandable where the field appears. Nothing on this page was supplied by the employer to this site.
The plan assets, the participant counts, the plan-paid fees and the recordkeeper come from a different document, the plan’s DOL Form 5500 annual return, and the section that reports them links it. Comparisons with other employers are computed across the filings named in the section they appear in.
Read the filing on SEC EDGAR ↗
| Document | Form 11-K annual report |
|---|---|
| Filed with | US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) |
| Filed by | KENNAMETAL INC |
| SEC CIK | 55242 |
| Accession number | 0001628280-26-045689 |
| Plan | Kennametal Thrift Plus Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 26, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with KENNAMETAL INC, with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with this plan’s recordkeeper, and publishes this page without their involvement. It republishes a public filing and says where it came from.
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, “KENNAMETAL INC 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0001628280-26-045689, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
