Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) Short Interest Up 9.1% in April

Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 418,400 shares, a growth of 9.1% from the March 31st total of 383,600 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 128,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded Astec Industries from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Astec Industries

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,531,823 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $56,984,000 after purchasing an additional 29,657 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 1,131,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,083,000 after purchasing an additional 86,969 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 65,426.4% during the third 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 last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 9.2% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 381,149 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $17,956,000 after purchasing an additional 32,236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 369,157 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $13,733,000 after purchasing an additional 14,126 shares during the last quarter. 93.16% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Astec Industries Price Performance

Shares of Astec Industries stock traded down $1.27 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $41.65. The stock had a trading volume of 60,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 127,831. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market cap of $947.12 million, a P/E ratio of 29.12 and a beta of 1.38. The business has a fifty day moving average of $41.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $37.39. Astec Industries has a fifty-two week low of $28.97 and a fifty-two week high of $56.33.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The industrial products company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $337.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $332.33 million. Astec Industries had a return on equity of 9.46% and a net margin of 2.50%. The company’s revenue was down 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.34 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Astec Industries will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Astec Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. Astec Industries’s dividend payout ratio is 35.37%.

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.