Archrock, Inc. $AROC Shares Sold by Earnest Partners LLC

Key Points

• Earnest Partners LLC reduced its stake in Archrock, Inc. by 9.6%, retaining about 11.8 million shares which now represent approximately 1.5% of its holdings.
• Archrock announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.21 per share, reflecting a positive change from the previous $0.19 and a yield of 3.4%.
• The company reported earnings of $0.39 per share for the quarter, exceeding estimates, with revenues up 41.6% year-over-year, totaling $383.15 million.

Earnest Partners LLC reduced its stake in Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC - Free Report) by 9.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,823,992 shares of the energy company's stock after selling 1,250,912 shares during the quarter. Archrock makes up approximately 1.5% of Earnest Partners LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Earnest Partners LLC owned approximately 6.69% of Archrock worth $310,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky raised its holdings in Archrock by 34.4% in the 1st quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 55,528 shares of the energy company's stock worth $1,457,000 after purchasing an additional 14,200 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Archrock by 13.2% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 8,030 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $211,000 after acquiring an additional 937 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Archrock by 26.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 9,098 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $239,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Archrock by 53.9% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 27,402 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $725,000 after acquiring an additional 9,594 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in Archrock during the first quarter valued at about $522,000. 95.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Archrock

In other news, SVP Eric W. Thode sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.54, for a total transaction of $235,400.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 224,809 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,292,003.86. This represents a 4.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

Archrock Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:AROC traded down $0.07 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $24.76. 1,153,692 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,561,737. Archrock, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.38 and a 1 year high of $30.44. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $23.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $24.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 1.30.

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

Archrock announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Monday, May 5th that allows the company to repurchase $50.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the energy company to repurchase up to 1.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were issued a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 5th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. This is an increase from Archrock's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. Archrock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 63.64%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on AROC. Sidoti raised Archrock to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Mizuho raised their price objective on Archrock from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price objective on Archrock from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $30.00.

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.