Forensic Analysis · Industrials / Manufacturing / Defense · as of Aug 11, 2026
Astec Industries Inc (ASTE)
A forensic read on Astec Industries Inc built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Safe
Financial health
5.5
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
39.9
P / E (ttm)
5.7%
ROE
$997M
Market cap
1.18%
Dividend yield
8.1%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Astec Industries Inc earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 5.5, placing it in the Safe zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+36.8%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +36.8% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not total assets (see the Forensic Screens card's differently-scaled Sloan Accrual Ratio for that read). Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash; Richardson/Sloan link high accruals to weaker future returns as they reverse. The build is led by receivables up +31% against revenue +8% and inventory up +10% against +6% in cost of sales. The cash-flow cross-check is more mixed: reported earnings ran in line with operating cash by 3% of net operating assets, diverging from the balance-sheet accrual read.
4.9%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.9% in the latest fiscal year and rising from 1% — well below its ~9% cost of capital, so reinvested dollars may be destroying value, not building it.
$22M
FY2020–FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $22M of goodwill writedowns across 2 years (FY2020 ($2M), FY2024 ($20M)) — about 22% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.
+0.5%/yr
FY2022–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 3 years to FY2025 (+0.5%/yr). Roughly flat — the count is neither shrinking nor growing meaningfully. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
-70%
FY2012→FY2013
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$1.41B
Revenue Growth YoY+8.1%
Revenue CAGR (3yr)+3.4%
Net Margin2.8%
Free Cash Flow$20.7M
Return on Equity5.7%
Debt / Equity0.49x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Astec Industries Inc's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~70% in FY2013 (from FY2012) and hasn't been restored since. It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.