Caxton Associates LP Takes $250,000 Position in Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE)

Caxton Associates LP purchased a new stake in shares of Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 5,727 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ASTE. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Astec Industries by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,531,823 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $56,984,000 after acquiring an additional 29,657 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its holdings in Astec Industries by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 1,131,271 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,083,000 after acquiring an additional 86,969 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Astec Industries by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 369,157 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $13,733,000 after acquiring an additional 14,126 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Astec Industries by 6.3% in the first quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 236,251 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $10,327,000 after acquiring an additional 14,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Heartland Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Astec Industries by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Heartland Advisors Inc. now owns 182,793 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $7,318,000 after acquiring an additional 10,808 shares in the last quarter. 93.16% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ASTE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Astec Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $47.00 to $37.00 in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Astec Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd.

Astec Industries Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ASTE traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $34.51. 17,328 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 151,048. The company has a market cap of $785.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.85 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 2.51. Astec Industries, Inc. has a one year low of $28.46 and a one year high of $56.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $31.54 and a 200 day moving average of $35.96.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by ($0.47). The business had revenue of $309.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $343.27 million. Astec Industries had a net margin of 1.91% and a return on equity of 7.44%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share.

Insider Activity at Astec Industries

In other news, insider Michael Paul Norris acquired 1,000 shares of Astec Industries stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $33.46 per share, for a total transaction of $33,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 15,886 shares in the company, valued at $531,545.56. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.