Raymond James Financial Inc. Sells 40,204 Shares of Archrock, Inc. $AROC

Key Points

• Raymond James Financial Inc. reduced its stake in Archrock, Inc. by 2.8%, owning approximately 1,415,855 shares worth around $37.15 million at the end of Q1.
• Archrock recently increased its quarterly dividend from $0.19 to $0.21, reflecting a positive change as it also posted a revenue increase of 41.6% year-over-year.
• The company announced a $50 million stock repurchase plan, signaling that its board believes the shares are undervalued.

Raymond James Financial Inc. lessened its stake in Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC - Free Report) by 2.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,415,855 shares of the energy company's stock after selling 40,204 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.80% of Archrock worth $37,152,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV bought a new stake in Archrock in the first quarter valued at approximately $417,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Archrock by 9.4% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,388,964 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $141,406,000 after buying an additional 461,940 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Archrock in the 1st quarter worth $348,000. Neuberger Berman Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Archrock during the first quarter valued at about $386,000. Finally, Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of Archrock by 1.1% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,310,677 shares of the energy company's stock worth $33,310,000 after purchasing an additional 13,865 shares during the period. 95.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AROC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Sidoti upgraded Archrock to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 7th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Archrock from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Five 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 company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $28.40.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Eric W. Thode sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.54, for a total value of $235,400.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 224,809 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,292,003.86. The trade was a 4.26% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.60% of the company's stock.

Archrock Stock Up 0.4%

AROC traded up $0.10 during trading on Thursday, reaching $24.63. The stock had a trading volume of 319,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,416,454. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The company has a market capitalization of $4.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.10. The stock's 50 day moving average is $23.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.66. Archrock, Inc. has a one year low of $18.38 and a one year high of $30.44.

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

Archrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 5th were paid a dividend of $0.21 per share. This is a positive change from Archrock's previous quarterly dividend of $0.19. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 5th. Archrock's payout ratio is 63.64%.

Archrock declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, May 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $50.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the energy company to reacquire up to 1.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.