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

Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,310,000 shares, a growth of 15.7% from the March 31st total of 4,590,000 shares. Approximately 4.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,340,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.0 days.

Institutional Trading of Archrock

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Archrock by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 41,562 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $640,000 after purchasing an additional 1,408 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Archrock by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 69,907 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $1,077,000 after acquiring an additional 1,582 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Archrock by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 28,113 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,624 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Archrock by 10.3% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 17,633 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $222,000 after buying an additional 1,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, USA Financial Formulas boosted its position in shares of Archrock by 4,483.8% during the fourth quarter. USA Financial Formulas now owns 1,696 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 1,659 shares during the last quarter. 95.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Archrock Stock Down 4.7 %

Shares of NYSE AROC opened at $19.19 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $19.30 and its 200 day moving average is $16.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.64, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 1.40. Archrock has a 52 week low of $8.78 and a 52 week high of $21.40.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The energy company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $268.49 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $260.51 million. Archrock had a return on equity of 12.63% and a net margin of 10.60%. Archrock’s revenue was up 3.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Archrock will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Archrock Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 6th. Archrock’s payout ratio is 98.51%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Archrock from $20.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.67.

Archrock Company 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.