Great Lakes Advisors LLC Sells 153,307 Shares of Archrock, Inc. $AROC

Great Lakes Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Archrock, Inc. (NYSE:AROC) by 43.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 197,587 shares of the energy company’s stock after selling 153,307 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Archrock were worth $5,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in AROC. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. increased its holdings in Archrock by 48.8% during the third quarter. EFG Asset Management North America Corp. now owns 84,590 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $2,226,000 after buying an additional 27,730 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its position in shares of Archrock by 76.2% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 54,707 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $1,439,000 after acquiring an additional 23,655 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Archrock by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 38,260 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $982,000 after purchasing an additional 708 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Archrock in the 3rd quarter valued at about $222,000. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Archrock by 27.8% during the third quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 12,662 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 2,755 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.45% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Eric W. Thode sold 40,740 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.10, for a total transaction of $1,022,574.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 184,216 shares in the company, valued at $4,623,821.60. This represents a 18.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 2.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Archrock Trading Up 1.5%

AROC stock opened at $29.60 on Friday. Archrock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $20.12 and a 52 week high of $30.19. The company has a market capitalization of $5.19 billion, a PE ratio of 19.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.56.

Archrock (NYSE:AROC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The energy company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.01. Archrock had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 20.17%. The firm had revenue of $382.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $379.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.28 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 30.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Archrock, Inc. will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Archrock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. This is a boost from Archrock’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.21. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.0%. Archrock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 56.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on AROC shares. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Archrock from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Archrock in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Archrock from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Archrock from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.40.

Archrock Profile

Archrock, Inc is a Houston?based provider of natural gas compression services and equipment to the oil and gas industry in North America. Founded in 2004, the company supplies both short?term rentals and long?term contracts for compression solutions, serving upstream and midstream producers. Archrock’s offerings include engineered compression systems, aftermarket parts, maintenance and field services designed to optimize wellhead and pipeline operations.

The company’s core business activities focus on the design, manufacture, rental and sale of gas compression equipment.