Archrock, Inc. $AROC Stock: Viking Fund Management LLC Increases Stake

Viking Fund Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) by 50.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 270,000 shares of the energy company’s stock after buying an additional 90,000 shares during the quarter. Viking Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Archrock were worth $8,178,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Congress Asset Management Co. boosted its holdings in Archrock by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 2,532,464 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $76,708,000 after buying an additional 319,256 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Archrock by 56.1% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 5,764 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $175,000 after acquiring an additional 2,072 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in Archrock by 24.7% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 31,627 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,288,000 after acquiring an additional 6,257 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Archrock during the second quarter valued at about $234,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Archrock by 102.4% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 16,433 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $669,000 after acquiring an additional 8,314 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AROC. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Archrock from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Zacks Research cut Archrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Evercore set a $40.00 target price on Archrock in a research note on Monday, August 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Archrock from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Archrock from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.12.

Archrock Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AROC opened at $29.78 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 firm has a fifty day moving average price of $31.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.93. Archrock, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $22.88 and a fifty-two week high of $42.23. The firm has a market cap of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.48 and a beta of 0.92.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The energy company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $371.24 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $393.19 million. Archrock had a net margin of 21.84% and a return on equity of 22.22%. The business’s revenue was down 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Archrock, Inc. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 4th were paid a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 4th. This is an increase from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Archrock’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.46%.

Archrock Company Profile

Archrock, Inc (NYSE: AROC) is a Houston-based provider of natural gas compression services and equipment. The company supports the production, gathering, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas by supplying compression infrastructure that helps maintain pressure and move gas through energy systems.

Archrock’s principal business is contract compression, in which it owns and operates a fleet of natural gas compressors and provides them to customers under service agreements.