Royal Bank of Canada Grows Stock Holdings in Archrock, Inc. $AROC

Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in shares of Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) by 44.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 158,680 shares of the energy company’s stock after acquiring an additional 48,599 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in Archrock were worth $5,521,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AROC. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Archrock by 217.9% in the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,316 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 902 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Archrock by 482.9% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,699 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 2,236 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Archrock by 24.6% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 279,100 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $6,930,000 after buying an additional 55,059 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in Archrock by 19.8% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 9,700 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $241,000 after buying an additional 1,600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its position in shares of Archrock by 87.0% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 603,351 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $14,981,000 after acquiring an additional 280,745 shares during the period. 95.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Archrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AROC opened at $33.29 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $36.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.57. The stock has a market cap of $5.84 billion, a PE ratio of 17.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.86. Archrock, Inc. has a one year low of $22.88 and a one year high of $42.23.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The energy company reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.07). Archrock had a net margin of 21.84% and a return on equity of 22.22%. The company had revenue of $371.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $393.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Archrock, Inc. will post 1.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 4th were issued a dividend of $0.23 per share. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. This is a boost from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 4th. Archrock’s payout ratio is presently 49.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Archrock in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $41.00 target price on Archrock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings raised Archrock from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Archrock from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Archrock from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Jason Ingersoll sold 33,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.19, for a total value of $1,260,270.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 277,454 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,595,968.26. The trade was a 10.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Doug S. Aron sold 35,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.30, for a total transaction of $1,340,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 359,337 shares in the company, valued at $13,762,607.10. The trade was a 8.88% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

About Archrock

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.