Shareholders of Astec Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTE) will be pleased this week, given that the stock price is up 16% to US$40.70 following its latest full-year results. Revenues were US$1.3b, approximately in line with expectations, although statutory earnings per share (EPS) performed substantially better. EPS of US$1.47 were also better than expected, beating analyst predictions by 14%. Earnings are an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance, look at what the analysts are forecasting for next year, and see if there's been a change in sentiment towards the company. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Astec Industries after the latest results.

Check out our latest analysis for Astec Industries

Taking into account the latest results, Astec Industries' four analysts currently expect revenues in 2024 to be US$1.34b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory earnings per share are predicted to leap 21% to US$1.78. Before this earnings report, the analysts had been forecasting revenues of US$1.37b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.94 in 2024. So it looks like there's been a small decline in overall sentiment after the recent results - there's been no major change to revenue estimates, but the analysts did make a minor downgrade to their earnings per share forecasts.

The consensus price target held steady at US$45.67, with the analysts seemingly voting that their lower forecast earnings are not expected to lead to a lower stock price in the foreseeable future. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. There are some variant perceptions on Astec Industries, with the most bullish analyst valuing it at US$53.00 and the most bearish at US$37.00 per share. This shows there is still a bit of diversity in estimates, but analysts don't appear to be totally split on the stock as though it might be a success or failure situation.

One way to get more context on these forecasts is to look at how they compare to both past performance, and how other companies in the same industry are performing. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Astec Industries' revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2024 expected to display 0.4% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 3.0% over the past five years. Compare this against other companies (with analyst forecasts) in the industry, which are in aggregate expected to see revenue growth of 3.2% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than Astec Industries.