R Squared Ltd Makes New Investment in Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE)

R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 1,260 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Centiva Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Astec Industries during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $353,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Astec Industries by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 569,089 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $18,180,000 after buying an additional 22,743 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Astec Industries by 118.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 40,529 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,294,000 after buying an additional 22,017 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in Astec Industries by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 8,912 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Astec Industries by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 875,128 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,952,000 after buying an additional 26,256 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.16% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Astec Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Astec Industries from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th.

Astec Industries Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of ASTE opened at $34.91 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.70. The company has a current ratio of 2.47, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Astec Industries, Inc. has a twelve month low of $28.46 and a twelve month high of $44.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $795.95 million, a P/E ratio of -436.32 and a beta of 1.31.

Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.31. Astec Industries had a positive return on equity of 7.69% and a negative net margin of 0.15%. The company had revenue of $291.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $312.90 million. During the same period last year, the company posted ($0.01) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

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.