Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy” Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday.

Separately, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Astec Industries from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Astec Industries Price Performance

Shares of Astec Industries stock opened at $31.40 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $35.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.23. Astec Industries has a 52 week low of $28.46 and a 52 week high of $44.74. The stock has a market cap of $715.98 million, a PE ratio of -392.45 and a beta of 1.31.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.31. The firm had revenue of $291.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $312.90 million. Astec Industries had a negative net margin of 0.15% and a positive return on equity of 7.69%. Astec Industries’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.01) earnings per share.

Astec Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 13th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Astec Industries’s payout ratio is presently -650.00%.

Institutional Trading of Astec Industries

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its stake in Astec Industries by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 22,449 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $666,000 after acquiring an additional 2,548 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Astec Industries by 72.3% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 73,229 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,172,000 after acquiring an additional 30,717 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Astec Industries by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,538,684 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $45,637,000 after acquiring an additional 29,421 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Astec Industries during the 2nd quarter valued at about $689,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in Astec Industries by 38.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 61,038 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,810,000 after acquiring an additional 16,984 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.16% of the company’s stock.

Astec Industries Company Profile

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.