Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) Short Interest Update

Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE - Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 383,600 shares, a drop of 26.4% from the March 15th total of 521,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 129,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Astec Industries

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ASTE. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 9.6% during the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 19,918 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $856,000 after acquiring an additional 1,743 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 54.0% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 12,874 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $554,000 after acquiring an additional 4,513 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS boosted its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 19,626 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $844,000 after acquiring an additional 2,420 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,042,268 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $173,816,000 after acquiring an additional 178,771 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,341,277 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $57,675,000 after acquiring an additional 28,651 shares in the last quarter. 93.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Astec Industries Price Performance

Shares of ASTE stock traded down $1.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $42.49. 62,539 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 128,839. Astec Industries has a twelve month low of $28.97 and a twelve month high of $56.33. The firm has a market cap of $966.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.90 and a beta of 1.38. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $39.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 2.41.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The industrial products company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.28. Astec Industries had a return on equity of 9.46% and a net margin of 2.50%. The company had revenue of $337.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $332.33 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Astec Industries will post 2.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Astec Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 11th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. Astec Industries's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Astec Industries from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 19th. StockNews.com upgraded Astec Industries from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, March 11th.

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.