Insider Selling: Archrock (NYSE:AROC) CAO Sells 10,413 Shares of Stock

Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) CAO Donna Henderson sold 10,413 shares of Archrock stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.74, for a total value of $382,573.62. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 27,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,019,792.18. This trade represents a 27.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Archrock Price Performance

Shares of AROC stock traded down $1.52 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $35.52. The stock had a trading volume of 1,011,079 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,618,960. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $26.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of 19.41, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.87. Archrock, Inc. has a 12 month low of $20.12 and a 12 month high of $37.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.54, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.62.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The energy company reported $0.69 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $377.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $378.04 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.34 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Archrock, Inc. will post 1.09 EPS for the current year.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 10th. This is an increase from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Archrock’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.09%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of Archrock by 0.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 95,866 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $2,514,000 after acquiring an additional 667 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in shares of Archrock by 217.9% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,316 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 902 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in Archrock during the second quarter worth about $771,000. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its position in Archrock by 9.6% during the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 25,266 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $627,000 after acquiring an additional 2,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Burney Co. acquired a new position in Archrock in the second quarter valued at approximately $681,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Archrock from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Archrock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Zacks Research upgraded Archrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Archrock in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Archrock from $30.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.86.

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.