Archrock (NYSE:AROC) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Archrock (NYSE:AROC) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Sunday morning.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on AROC. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Archrock from $30.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Dawson James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Archrock in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Archrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Archrock in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Archrock from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $36.86.

Archrock Stock Up 0.5%

AROC stock opened at $36.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a current ratio of 1.54 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50-day moving average of $30.46 and a 200-day moving average of $26.83. Archrock has a fifty-two week low of $20.12 and a fifty-two week high of $37.26.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The energy company reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.40 by $0.29. Archrock had a return on equity of 23.57% and a net margin of 21.63%.The business had revenue of $377.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $378.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.34 EPS. Archrock’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Archrock will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 10th. This is a boost from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. Archrock’s payout ratio is currently 48.09%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Donna A. Henderson sold 10,413 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.74, for a total transaction of $382,573.62. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,757 shares in the company, valued at $1,019,792.18. The trade was a 27.28% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Archrock

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Archrock by 247.4% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 105,063 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $2,734,000 after acquiring an additional 74,818 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of Archrock by 40.7% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 127,471 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $3,309,000 after purchasing an additional 36,847 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Archrock by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,719,020 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $226,869,000 after purchasing an additional 457,569 shares during the period. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of Archrock by 20.3% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 18,519 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $482,000 after purchasing an additional 3,122 shares during the period. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC raised its stake in Archrock by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 9,206 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $240,000 after purchasing an additional 980 shares in the last quarter. 95.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Archrock Company Profile

Archrock, Inc is a Houston‐based provider of natural gas compression services and equipment to the oil and gas industry in North America. Founded in 2004, the company supplies both short‐term rentals and long‐term contracts for compression solutions, serving upstream and midstream producers. Archrock’s offerings include engineered compression systems, aftermarket parts, maintenance and field services designed to optimize wellhead and pipeline operations.

The company’s core business activities focus on the design, manufacture, rental and sale of gas compression equipment.