Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Takes Position in Archrock, Inc. $AROC

Key Points

Error: Response status code does not indicate success: 429 (Too Many Requests).

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV purchased a new position in Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 15,901 shares of the energy company's stock, valued at approximately $417,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Archrock during the 1st quarter valued at $43,092,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its position in shares of Archrock by 186.0% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,047,346 shares of the energy company's stock worth $26,068,000 after purchasing an additional 681,160 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Archrock by 9.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,388,964 shares of the energy company's stock worth $141,406,000 after purchasing an additional 461,940 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Archrock by 84.3% in the first quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 919,982 shares of the energy company's stock worth $24,140,000 after purchasing an additional 420,757 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Archrock by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,241,032 shares of the energy company's stock worth $55,779,000 after purchasing an additional 376,564 shares during the last quarter. 95.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Archrock news, SVP Eric W. Thode sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.54, for a total value of $235,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 224,809 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,292,003.86. This trade represents a 4.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 2.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on AROC shares. Sidoti upgraded Archrock to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Archrock from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $28.40.

Archrock Price Performance

Shares of AROC traded up $0.2550 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $25.2150. 1,816,279 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,590,557. Archrock, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.38 and a 1-year high of $30.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 1.81. The company has a 50 day moving average of $23.87 and a 200-day moving average of $24.74. The stock has a market cap of $4.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.10.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 4th. The energy company reported $0.39 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by $0.02. Archrock had a net margin of 17.17% and a return on equity of 18.74%. The company had revenue of $383.15 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $366.34 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS. Archrock's quarterly revenue was up 41.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Archrock, Inc. will post 1.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Archrock declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Monday, May 5th that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the energy company to reacquire up to 1.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.21 per share. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. This is an increase from Archrock's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. Archrock's dividend payout ratio is 63.64%.

Archrock Profile

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.