Archrock (NYSE:AROC) Upgraded to "Hold" at Zacks Research

Key Points

• Zacks Research upgraded Archrock from “strong sell” to “hold.” Despite the change, the analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy,” with a $42.12 target price.
• Archrock beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.49 per share versus $0.45 expected, but revenue of $370.81 million fell short of forecasts and was down 3% year over year.
• Shares opened at $27.59, below their 50-day and 200-day moving averages; institutional investors own 95.45% of the stock.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC - Get Free Report) was upgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Zacks reports.

AROC has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Evercore set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Archrock in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Archrock from $43.00 to $40.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Archrock from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Archrock from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Archrock from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Archrock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $42.12.

Archrock Stock Performance

Shares of AROC stock opened at $27.59 on Thursday. The stock's 50-day moving average is $30.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market cap of $4.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.32, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 0.96. Archrock has a fifty-two week low of $22.88 and a fifty-two week high of $42.23.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The energy company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.04. Archrock had a return on equity of 22.61% and a net margin of 22.89%. The company had revenue of $370.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $385.95 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.42 earnings per share. Archrock's revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Archrock will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AROC. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Archrock during the second quarter worth $1,217,511,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Archrock in the 2nd quarter valued at $262,070,000. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 319,256 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Archrock during the second quarter worth $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.

About Archrock

Archrock, Inc NYSE: AROC is a Houston-based energy infrastructure company that provides natural gas compression services in the United States. Compression is used to increase the pressure of natural gas so it can move efficiently through gathering systems, processing facilities, transmission pipelines and other midstream infrastructure.

The company operates a fleet of natural gas compressors and primarily serves customers through contract compression arrangements. Its services support a range of applications, including natural gas gathering, processing, transmission, storage and production.

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