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

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

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

Astec Industries Stock Performance

Shares of ASTE stock opened at $34.99 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $35.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.68. Astec Industries has a one year low of $28.46 and a one year high of $44.74. The stock has a market cap of $797.77 million, a P/E ratio of -437.32 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.47 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

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

Institutional Trading of Astec Industries

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ASTE. Tompkins Financial Corp acquired a new position in Astec Industries in the 4th quarter valued at about $34,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 69.8% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 458 shares during the period. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Astec Industries in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Astec Industries during the third quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Astec Industries during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $49,000. 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.