Archrock (NYSE:AROC) Reaches New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $31.00 to $40.00. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Archrock traded as high as $36.45 and last traded at $36.0590, with a volume of 274493 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $35.33.

AROC has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Archrock from $30.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Archrock in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Wall Street Zen raised Archrock from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Archrock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Archrock from $31.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.86.

Institutional Trading of Archrock

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AROC. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Archrock by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,080,037 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $225,457,000 after purchasing an additional 128,141 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in Archrock by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,018,889 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $182,631,000 after buying an additional 152,312 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Archrock by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,833,290 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $177,805,000 after buying an additional 111,218 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Archrock by 3.3% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,077,999 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $159,912,000 after acquiring an additional 191,914 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its position in Archrock by 3.5% during the third quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 5,499,093 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $144,681,000 after acquiring an additional 187,252 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.45% of the company’s stock.

Archrock Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.87.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The energy company reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.29. Archrock had a return on equity of 23.57% and a net margin of 21.63%.The company had revenue of $377.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $378.04 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.34 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Archrock, Inc. 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 given a dividend of $0.22 per share. This is a positive change from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Archrock’s payout ratio is 48.09%.

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.