Construction equipment company Astec (NASDAQ:ASTE) will be announcing earnings results tomorrow before market open. Here’s what you need to know.

Astec missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 5.2% last quarter, reporting revenues of $291.4 million, down 3.9% year on year. It was a slower quarter for the company, with EPS in line with analysts’ estimates.

Is Astec a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting Astec’s revenue to grow 2.2% year on year to $344.6 million, a reversal from the 3.6% decrease it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.73 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Astec has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates four times over the last two years.

Looking at Astec’s peers in the construction machinery segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Manitowoc posted flat year-on-year revenue, meeting analysts’ expectations, and Terex reported revenues up 1.5%, topping estimates by 0.8%. Manitowoc traded up 11.3% following the results while Terex was down 6.9%.

Read our full analysis of Manitowoc’s results here and Terex’s results here.

Valuation multiples for many growth stocks have not yet reverted to their early 2021 highs, but the market has been optimistic as of late due to a soft landing. This is an economic situation where rate hikes successfully quelled inflation but did not send the economy into a recession. Furthermore, recent rate cuts and Donald Trump's triumph in the 2024 Presidential election have been tailwinds for the market, and while some of the construction machinery stocks have shown solid performance, the group has generally underpeformed, with share prices down 7.4% on average over the last month. Astec is down 13.9% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $42.50 (compared to the current share price of $30.30).

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