Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) Short Interest Down 14.5% in March

Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,590,000 shares, a decrease of 14.5% from the March 15th total of 5,370,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,340,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days. Currently, 3.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Archrock Price Performance

Archrock stock opened at $19.90 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.87. The company has a market capitalization of $3.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.59. Archrock has a 1 year low of $8.78 and a 1 year high of $21.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The energy company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21. The business had revenue of $259.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $252.42 million. Archrock had a net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 12.63%. The business’s revenue was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.07 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Archrock will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 6th were paid a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.32%. This is an increase from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 5th. Archrock’s payout ratio is 98.51%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Archrock

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. USA Financial Formulas grew its holdings in shares of Archrock by 4,483.8% in the fourth quarter. USA Financial Formulas now owns 1,696 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,659 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Archrock in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Archrock in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in shares of Archrock by 184.8% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,913 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 2,539 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Archrock in the third quarter valued at approximately $119,000. 95.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Archrock from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $17.67.

About Archrock

Archrock, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Contract Operations and Aftermarket Services. It engages in the designing, sourcing, owning, installing, operating, servicing, repairing, and maintaining of its owned fleet of natural gas compression equipment to provide natural gas compression services.