Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Buys New Position in Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 68,700 shares of the energy company's stock, valued at approximately $1,058,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AROC. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Archrock during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,039,000. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of Archrock during the 3rd quarter valued at $119,000. Bernzott Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of Archrock during the 3rd quarter worth $4,452,000. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Archrock by 171.5% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 77,325 shares of the energy company's stock worth $974,000 after purchasing an additional 48,845 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Archrock in the third quarter valued at about $135,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.45% of the company's stock.

Archrock Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE AROC traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $19.83. The stock had a trading volume of 958,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,307,768. Archrock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $8.78 and a twelve month high of $21.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company's 50 day moving average price is $19.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.17. The firm has a market cap of $3.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.59.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 net margin of 10.60% and a return on equity of 12.63%. The business had revenue of $259.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $252.42 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.07 earnings per share. Archrock's revenue for the quarter was up 18.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Archrock, Inc. will post 0.99 EPS for the current year.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 6th were given a dividend of $0.165 per share. This is an increase from Archrock's previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 5th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.33%. Archrock's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 98.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.