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

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

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

Astec Industries Stock Down 2.4 %

ASTE stock opened at $32.38 on Thursday. Astec Industries has a twelve month low of $28.97 and a twelve month high of $56.33. The company has a market cap of $736.32 million, a PE ratio of 29.71 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 2.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last released its 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 return on equity of 7.44% and a net margin of 1.91%. The firm had revenue of $309.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $343.27 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Astec Industries will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Astec Industries Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of ASTE. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Astec Industries in the third quarter valued at approximately $564,000. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 15.9% in the third quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 4,363 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $206,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Astec Industries by 9.2% in the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 381,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $17,956,000 after purchasing an additional 32,236 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in Astec Industries by 44.4% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 13,379 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $630,000 after purchasing an additional 4,113 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Olympiad Research LP bought a new position in Astec Industries in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $294,000. Institutional investors 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.