Insider Buying: Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) Insider Purchases 1,000 Shares of Stock

Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE - Get Free Report) insider Michael Paul Norris acquired 1,000 shares of Astec Industries stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $33.46 per share, for a total transaction of $33,460.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 15,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $531,545.56. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Astec Industries Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ASTE traded up $0.45 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $33.79. 186,763 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 147,454. The stock has a market cap of $769.06 million, a P/E ratio of 30.59 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.00. Astec Industries, Inc. has a 1 year low of $28.97 and a 1 year high of $56.33.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.34 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $343.27 million. Astec Industries had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 7.44%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Astec Industries, Inc. will post 2.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Astec Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.54%. Astec Industries's dividend payout ratio is presently 47.71%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ASTE. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Astec Industries from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Astec Industries from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd.

Institutional Trading of Astec Industries

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTE. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Astec Industries by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,531,823 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $56,984,000 after acquiring an additional 29,657 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its stake in Astec Industries by 8.3% in the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 86,969 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 473,033 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake 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 valued at $17,956,000 after acquiring an additional 32,236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Astec Industries by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 369,157 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $13,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,126 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.

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