Congress Asset Management Co. Boosts Stake in Archrock, Inc. $AROC

Congress Asset Management Co. increased its holdings in Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) by 14.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,532,464 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 319,256 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Archrock were worth $76,708,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Archrock in the second quarter valued at $1,217,511,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Archrock in the second quarter valued at about $262,070,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its stake in Archrock by 6.5% during the first quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 2,502,235 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $87,078,000 after buying an additional 152,360 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Archrock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $84,463,000. Finally, Energy Income Partners LLC bought a new stake in Archrock during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $58,510,000. 95.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AROC. Zacks Research cut Archrock from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Evercore set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Archrock in a report on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Archrock from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Archrock from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Archrock from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Archrock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.29.

Archrock Trading Up 2.4%

AROC stock traded up $0.73 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $30.83. The stock had a trading volume of 1,839,277 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,761,802. The firm has a market cap of $5.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.57, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.92. Archrock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.88 and a twelve month high of $42.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.23.

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

Archrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 11th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 4th were issued a $0.23 dividend. This is an increase from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 4th. Archrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.46%.

Archrock 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.