Astec Industries loses $6.6 million in the third quarter

Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Astec tests a RX-405 asphalt cold planer prototype by doing standard resurfacing along Walnut and Seventh streets on July 25. The milling machine is used to grind the top layer of asphalt pavement before resurfacing. Astec Industries reported a $6.6 million loss in the third quarter on Wednesday. Staff Photo by Olivia Ross / Astec tests a RX-405 asphalt cold planer prototype by doing standard resurfacing along Walnut and Seventh streets on July 25. The milling machine is used to grind the top layer of asphalt pavement before resurfacing. Astec Industries reported a $6.6 million loss in the third quarter on Wednesday.

By Dave Flessner November 1, 2023 3 min read

Note: This story was updated Oct 3 to correct the adjusted earnings per share for Astec Industries to 27 cents per share

Shares of Astec Industries plunged Wednesday by more than 22% to their lowest price in more than 3 1/2 years after the Chattanooga-based asphalt equipment maker reported a third-quarter loss of $6.6 million, or 29 cents per share.

Most of the loss came from a $6.4 million contingency the company set aside after a jury verdict against Astec for a dispute over equipment sold by an Astec dealer in 2017. Without the non-recurring legal cost, Astec would have earned 27 cents per share as sales during the three months ended Sept. 30 fell by 3.8% from a year ago.

The quarterly results missed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 64 cents per share. Revenues in the period, which came in at $303.1 million, were well short of the $329.5 million consensus estimate.