Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday.

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Astec Industries from a buy rating to a hold rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Thursday.

Astec Industries Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ASTE opened at $32.38 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $736.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.71 and a beta of 1.40. Astec Industries has a 1-year low of $28.97 and a 1-year high of $56.33. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $41.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 2.51.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by ($0.47). Astec Industries had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 7.44%. The company had revenue of $309.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $343.27 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Astec Industries will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Astec Industries Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. Astec Industries’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.71%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Astec Industries

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Astec Industries in the fourth quarter valued at about $42,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Astec Industries during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 41,600.0% in the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,251 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 1,248 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new position in shares of Astec Industries in the 1st quarter worth approximately $85,000. Finally, Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of Astec Industries during the 1st quarter worth approximately $98,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.16% of the company’s stock.

About Astec Industries

Astec Industries, Inc designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets equipment and components used primarily in road building and related construction activities worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Infrastructure Solutions and Materials Solutions. The Infrastructure Solutions segment offers asphalt plants and related components, heaters, concrete dust control systems, asphalt pavers, vaporizers, concrete material handling systems, screeds, heat recovery units, paste back-fill plants, asphalt storage tanks, hot oil heaters, bagging plants, fuel storage tanks, industrial and asphalt burners and systems, custom batch plants, material transfer vehicles, soil stabilizing-reclaiming machinery, blower trucks and trailers, milling machines, soil remediation plants, wood chippers and grinders, pump trailers, concrete batch plants, control systems, liquid terminals, storage equipment and related parts, construction and retrofits, polymer plants, and concrete mixers, as well as engineering and environmental permitting services.