Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) Short Interest Up 15.7% in April

Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,310,000 shares, an increase of 15.7% from the March 31st total of 4,590,000 shares. Currently, 4.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,340,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Archrock from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Archrock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $17.67.

Archrock Price Performance

AROC traded down $0.07 on Monday, reaching $20.13. The stock had a trading volume of 1,016,541 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,297,779. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82. The company has a market capitalization of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.59. Archrock has a fifty-two week low of $8.78 and a fifty-two week high of $21.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $19.27 and a 200-day moving average of $16.37.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The energy company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.21. Archrock had a return on equity of 12.63% and a net margin of 10.60%. The company had revenue of $259.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $252.42 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.07 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Archrock will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Archrock Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.28%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 6th. Archrock's payout ratio is currently 98.51%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Archrock

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Archrock by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,471,805 shares of the energy company's stock worth $269,066,000 after acquiring an additional 62,200 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in Archrock by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 12,552,460 shares of the energy company's stock worth $158,161,000 after purchasing an additional 327,411 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Archrock by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,624,601 shares of the energy company's stock worth $163,620,000 after purchasing an additional 145,397 shares during the period. Blackstone Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Archrock by 4,211.9% in the 4th quarter. Blackstone Inc. now owns 5,903,142 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $90,908,000 after purchasing an additional 5,766,237 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in shares of Archrock by 37.7% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 5,113,865 shares of the energy company's stock valued at $78,753,000 after purchasing an additional 1,399,309 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.45% of the company's stock.

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.