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

Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 438,900 shares, a growth of 17.0% from the August 15th total of 375,100 shares. Approximately 2.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 153,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Astec Industries during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. TFO Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 41,600.0% during the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,251 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 1,248 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Astec Industries during the 1st quarter valued at $66,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Astec Industries by 32.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,646 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 399 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Central Pacific Bank Trust Division bought a new position in Astec Industries in the 1st quarter worth $85,000. Institutional investors own 93.16% of the company’s stock.

Astec Industries Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of ASTE traded up $0.97 on Friday, hitting $31.31. 112,697 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 149,190. Astec Industries has a one year low of $28.46 and a one year high of $50.37. The company has a market capitalization of $713.87 million, a PE ratio of 28.73 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 2.50.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The industrial products company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $345.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $332.35 million. Astec Industries had a positive return on equity of 6.56% and a negative net margin of 0.18%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.87 EPS.

Astec Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 12th were paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 12th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Astec Industries’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.71%.

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.