Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) Rating Lowered to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus

Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has $37.00 target price on the industrial products company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $47.00.

Separately, StockNews.com raised Astec Industries from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Monday, March 11th.

Astec Industries Stock Performance

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

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.81 by ($0.47). The firm had revenue of $309.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $343.27 million. Astec Industries had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 7.44%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Astec Industries will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Astec Industries Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors 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 payout ratio is 47.71%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Astec Industries during the fourth quarter worth $424,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund bought a new position in Astec Industries during the 3rd quarter worth about $695,000. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 65,426.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 473,756 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $22,319,000 after purchasing an additional 473,033 shares during the period. Kennedy Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 34.5% in the third quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 108,542 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,113,000 after purchasing an additional 27,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Astec Industries during the third quarter worth about $564,000. 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.