Skylands Capital LLC Buys Shares of 6,450 Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE)

Skylands Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 6,450 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ASTE. FMR LLC raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new stake in Astec Industries in the third quarter valued at approximately $13,107,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in Astec Industries by 989.7% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 92,681 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,366,000 after buying an additional 84,176 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Astec Industries by 9.2% during 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 buying an additional 32,236 shares during the period. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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 worth $5,113,000 after acquiring an additional 27,813 shares in the last quarter. 93.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Astec Industries Price Performance

Shares of Astec Industries stock traded down $0.11 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $42.81. 2,084 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 127,166. Astec Industries, Inc. has a twelve month low of $28.97 and a twelve month high of $56.33. The company has a market cap of $973.50 million, a PE ratio of 29.20 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $41.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $37.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The industrial products company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $332.33 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Astec Industries, Inc. will post 2.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Astec Industries Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 1.21%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 8th. Astec Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.37%.

Astec Industries 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.