Astec Industries (NASDAQ: ASTE) reported Q2 EPS of $0.62, $0.18 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.80. Revenue for the quarter came in at $301.9 million versus the consensus estimate of $313.96 million.

Commenting on the announcement, Benjamin G. Brock, Chief Executive Officer, stated, “Although we were not pleased with our net income for the quarter, we were pleased that we were able to grow sales while also shipping several new products during the quarter. While the costs associated with building new products and getting them going in the field negatively affected our results as we expected, significantly lower than expected margins on pellet plant installation were our primary disappointment for the quarter.”

Mr. Brock continued, “Excluding pellet plants, our backlog is up 27% versus last year. We are pleased that, excluding pellet plants, each of our financial reporting groups increased backlog versus last year. Non-pellet plant backlog increased both in domestic and international markets. Domestically, we continue to experience a good market for our products, mainly as a result of the federal highway bill and other state and local level funding mechanisms. Internationally, our strategy of keeping our sales and service structure in place despite the challenge of the strong U.S. Dollar, which increases our sales prices globally for export equipment, has allowed us to earn orders mainly as a result of pent up demand meeting improved global market conditions.”

In closing, Mr. Brock commented, “Given our current backlog and quote activity, we are optimistic on our outlook for the balance of 2017.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Astec Industries (ASTE) click here.