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Date

Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET

Call participants

  • President and Chief Executive Officer — D. Childers
  • Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer — Douglas S. Aron

Takeaways

  • Adjusted earnings per share -- $0.42, as reported for the quarter.
  • Adjusted EBITDA -- $221 million, up 12% year over year and in line with previously issued guidance.
  • Fleet utilization -- Remained at 95% at quarter end, sustaining full or near-full utilization over a multiyear period.
  • Operating horsepower -- 4.53 million, up 250,000 horsepower year over year; declined by 43,000 sequentially due to asset sales exceeding newbuild additions.
  • Nonstrategic compression unit sales -- Approximately 40,000 horsepower sold, generating $21 million in proceeds for ongoing fleet investments.
  • Net income -- $73.8 million for the quarter.
  • Adjusted free cash flow -- $92 million; $52 million after dividends paid out during the quarter.
  • Dividend declared -- $0.22 per share for the quarter, representing a 16% year-over-year increase and maintaining 3.5x coverage.
  • Share repurchases -- 171,000 shares repurchased for $4.4 million, with $113 million remaining under the current authorization.
  • SG&A expense -- $45 million for the quarter, up from $37 million year over year, driven partly by nonrecurring long-term incentive expense acceleration of $3.7 million and higher stock price impact.
  • Contract operations revenue -- $331 million, reflecting a 10% increase year over year as a result of horsepower growth and improved pricing.
  • Adjusted gross margin (contract operations) -- 72% for the quarter, consistent with prior period sustained profitability.
  • Aftermarket services revenue -- $43 million for the quarter, with 23% adjusted gross margin amid expected seasonal slowdown.
  • Total debt -- $2.4 billion at quarter end; following refinancing activity, next bond maturity moves to 2032, with available liquidity of $600 million and quarter-end leverage ratio at 2.6x.
  • Capital expenditures -- Full year guidance of $400 million to $445 million, including growth CapEx of $250 million to $275 million, maintenance CapEx of $125 million to $135 million, and $25 million to $35 million earmarked for other capital needs.
  • Asset management -- Asset sales reduced quarterly adjusted EBITDA by $3 million sequentially but provided funding for newbuild investments.
  • Future equipment deliveries -- Newbuild horsepower deliveries are expected to increase in successive quarters, with back-half weighted activity in the year.
  • Guidance reaffirmed -- Full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance maintained at $865 million to $915 million.
  • Cat equipment lead times -- Now out to approximately 160 weeks, with Archrock placing multi-year orders to secure capacity and limit customer risk from supply constraints.
  • Diversification of bookings -- Only 35% of bookings in the quarter were from the Permian, with growth seen in Northeast, Mid-Continent, South (East Texas, Haynesville), and Rockies regions.
  • Dividend strategy -- Commitment to growing cash returns while maintaining capacity for growth investment and keeping dividend payout robustly covered.

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Risks

  • Childers said, "We do expect to have some oil price headwinds primarily in the back half of the year as lube oil pricing for us adjusts quarterly," noting a lag exists between rising costs and the ability to pass those increases to customers.
  • SG&A expense increased due to a nonrecurring "GAAP accounting acceleration of expense recognition for long-term incentive compensation" in the quarter, which is not expected to recur, but drove expenses above typical run rates.
  • Asset sales in excess of newbuild deliveries contributed to a sequential $3 million reduction in adjusted EBITDA.

Summary

Archrock (AROC 2.69%) reported high fleet utilization, continued portfolio high-grading, and strong cash generation, positioning the business for ongoing growth and enhanced shareholder returns. Management signaled increased newbuild deliveries in the back half of the year and reaffirmed 2026 EBITDA guidance, while also addressing extended equipment lead times and actively managing balance sheet flexibility for both organic and inorganic growth opportunities. The company indicated demand across a range of geographies beyond the Permian and highlighted proactive efforts to maintain equipment availability amid industry-wide supply constraints.

  • Childers emphasized, "Cat lead times continue to extend out. So we're seeing an extreme tightness in the supply chain. I think that now we're out to close to 160 weeks."
  • Aftermarket services maintained profitability at high-end guidance margin levels during anticipated seasonal weakness, underlining operating discipline.
  • Archrock's available liquidity expanded significantly to $600 million after refinancing and asset sales, moving all bond maturities to 2032 and reducing leverage to 2.6x.
  • Management cited industry bottlenecks as likely in various supply chain segments, but stated, "At Archrock, we're very invested in not being one of them."

Industry glossary

  • Horsepower (hp): The standard measurement unit used in gas compression, representing the rate at which work is performed by compression equipment deployed at customer sites.
  • Adjusted EBITDA: Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, excluding items such as asset sales and restructuring, used as a metric for underlying business performance.
  • LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas): Natural gas that is cooled to liquid form for storage and transportation.
  • Aftermarket services (AMS): Segment offering parts sales and post-sale support, including operation, maintenance, overhaul, and upgrades for customer-owned compression equipment.
  • Cat equipment: Short for Caterpillar-brand gas compression engines, a key equipment supplier referenced for lead time and procurement challenges.

Full Conference Call Transcript

D. Childers: Thank you, Megan, and good morning, everyone. Archrock is off to a strong start in 2026, driven by disciplined execution and continued progress on our strategy with a clear focus on delivering returns to our investors. At the same time, customer demand remains strong and our order book continues to build, supporting a constructive outlook for compression and Archrock over the long term. Let me share a few highlights from the quarter that underscore the momentum in our performance and the durability of our business model. We delivered adjusted EPS of $0.42 during the first quarter of 2026, and adjusted EBITDA of $221 million. Compared to the first quarter of 2025, we increased our adjusted EBITDA by 12%.

Our fleet remains fully utilized, extending our multiyear track record of full utilization. At the same time, we continue to high-grade our fleet with the sale of nonstrategic compression units totaling approximately 40,000 horsepower, strengthening our portfolio and supporting disciplined capital allocation with year-to-date asset sale proceeds of $21 million helping to fund our newbuild program. We again delivered outstanding performance and profitability in both our contract compression and aftermarket services business segments. And we translated this performance into adjusted free cash flow of $92 million in the quarter, of which we returned $44 million to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, which is up 29% year-over-year.

Overall, we're encouraged by the strong start to 2026, which keeps us on pace to achieve our full year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance range of between $865 million and $915 million, which we expect will translate into meaningful free cash flow generation for the year. As we look ahead, we believe our strategy is supported by 3 key drivers: the right market, the right platform, and the right balance sheet. Let me briefly walk through each one. First, the right market. The importance of natural gas is clear today, and it has been underscored again by recent conflict in the Middle East.

Natural gas remains essential to powering economic growth, delivering affordable, reliable energy and enabling energy security, driving sustained demand for the infrastructure needed to move more gas to market. Second, the right platform. We have the people, assets and technologies in place to help customers move more gas to market more efficiently and safely and to do so profitably. Customer service is a top priority for our organization, and we're continually deploying technology and data-driven tools for the benefit of our customers, our employees and our shareholders. Our scale, operating discipline and focus on reliability position us to execute consistently. Third, the right balance sheet.

Our leverage profile reflects the strength and durability of our cash flows, and it provides the flexibility to invest in the organic and inorganic opportunities the current market is offering while continuing to return capital to shareholders. Taken together, these 3 drivers give us confidence in our ability to continue compounding earnings and free cash flow. And as we execute by moving more gas to market safely and efficiently, investing in the highest return segments of the growing compression industry and maintaining balance sheet strength, we believe Archrock is well positioned to deliver sustainable and superior returns on capital.

Natural gas production continues to climb, and we expect U.S. volumes to reach record levels for the sixth consecutive year in 2026. For Archrock, our footprint is concentrated in the faster-growing basins, especially the Permian, where associated gas volumes are expected to grow at mid-single-digit rates. Rising gas-to-oil ratios are making the basin more compression intensive and about 4.6 Bcf a day of new takeaway capacity expected later this year should further support expanding levels of activity. We're also seeing early but encouraging signs of improving compression demand beyond the Permian across other basins. On demand, LNG remains a key driver.

Roughly 2 Bcf a day of additional FID export capacity is expected to come online in 2026 and projects already sanctioned represent about 14 Bcf a day of incremental capacity through 2030. At the same time, the build-out of AI data centers is accelerating power demand, reinforcing natural gas-fired generation as a practical scalable source of incremental electricity. Bottom line, we continue to see a constructive setup for natural gas and for compression across the market. Near term, the U.S. is on track for another record year in 2026. And in the Permian, we expect mid-single-digit gas growth supported by rising gas to oil ratios and new takeaway later this year.

Geopolitical risk in the Middle East, including Iran-related volatility, reinforces the strategic value of U.S. supply and supports tighter global LNG fundamentals. And longer term, the outlook is improving. The EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2026 raised its view of U.S. gas production and demand versus last year, driven in part by LNG growth and AI data center power needs with production projected to rise from 107 Bcf a day in 2025 to approximately 133 to 151 Bcf a day by 2050. That would represent an increase in natural gas production of between 24% and 41%, reinforcing our view of a longer-term growth trajectory for both natural gas production and for compression. Moving to our segments.

Contract operations delivered outstanding performance, supported by excellent execution and continued high demand for our compression fleet, particularly our large horsepower and electric motor drive units, extending our track record of strong results. Our fleet remained highly utilized during the quarter, exiting at 95% utilization, reflecting continued high demand and the high quality of our fleet and sustaining strong utilization in our contract operations business over a multiyear period. That durability is also evident in the time on location with the blended fleet averaging approximately 6 years and units of 1,500 horsepower or greater averaging approximately 8 years in largely midstream applications. At quarter end, we had 4.5 million operating horsepower.

Operating horsepower declined by approximately 43,000 as newbuild deliveries during the quarter were more than offset by the sale of approximately 40,000 nonstrategic horsepower, including 21,000 active horsepower. As a reminder, we also sold approximately 123,000 horsepower, including 84,000 active horsepower at the end of 2025. Taken together, these sales reduced first quarter adjusted EBITDA by approximately $3 million on a sequential basis. Monthly revenue per horsepower moves higher on a sequential and year-over-year basis. In 2026, we continue to expect monthly revenue per horsepower to benefit from the full year carryover of the rate increases implemented in 2025 and increases in 2026. We achieved a quarterly adjusted gross margin percentage of 72%.

Consistent profitability above 70% continues to be driven by strong pricing, disciplined execution and a continued focus on per horsepower cost management. Over the last several years, we've executed well on the cost inputs into our operations, offsetting some of the cost increases we experienced during the recent higher inflationary environment, including higher costs for labor and parts. We remain focused on continuing this level of execution through technology deployment and ongoing cost management. Moving to our aftermarket services segment. Performance was solid in the first quarter. As expected, Q1 is seasonally slower. Even so, we continue to deliver strong profitability levels in the business, reflecting disciplined execution and an ongoing focus on higher quality, higher-margin work.

Turning to capital allocation. We remain disciplined and returns-focused, prioritizing growth investment and shareholder returns supported by a strong balance sheet. We reaffirmed our 2026 growth capital plan of $250 million to $275 million for fleet investment, reflecting strong demand and our desire to continue growing our profitable platform through high-return newbuild investments. We expect substantial free cash flow to support increasing shareholder returns. We declared a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share, up approximately 16% year-over-year while maintaining robust coverage.

We also have flexibility for additional shareholder returns, including $113 million of remaining authorization under our share repurchase program as of quarter end, which we view as a tool within our returns-based framework and may use more actively during periods of market dislocation. We exited the quarter below our long-term leverage target of between 3x to 3.5x and expect to operate below 3x in the near term, preserving flexibility for both organic and inorganic growth as well as continued shareholder returns. In summary, Archrock is delivering consistent strong results underpinned by a culture of disciplined execution and continuous improvement.

Looking ahead, we see a meaningful runway for profitable growth with earnings supported by a returns-based capital allocation and durable tailwinds for natural gas infrastructure, including compression. Before I hand it over, I want to recognize Doug Aron. As we previously announced, Doug plans to retire by the end of the year. On behalf of Archrock, thank you, Doug, for more than 7 years of outstanding service and leadership during an exciting and transformative period for the company. Doug has been a key leader and a trusted adviser to me, the rest of the executive leadership team and our Board.

And to be clear, he's not going anywhere just yet, Doug will stay in his role until a successor is named to ensure a smooth transition. With that, I'll turn the call over to Doug to walk through our first quarter and 2026 outlook.

Douglas Aron: Thank you, Brad. Certainly appreciate the kind words. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us. Let's review our first quarter results and then cover our current financial outlook for 2026. Net income for the first quarter of 2026 was $73.8 million. Excluding transaction-related and restructuring costs and adjusting for the associated tax impact, we delivered adjusted net income of $74.4 million or $0.42 per share. We reported adjusted EBITDA of $221 million for the first quarter of 2026. Underlying business performance exceeded our basis for guidance and results also benefited from a $10 million net gain from the sale of nonstrategic compression and other assets.

Strength in segment fundamentals was somewhat offset by higher selling, general and administrative expense in the quarter. That performance translated into adjusted free cash flow of $92 million and adjusted free cash flow after dividend of $52 million in the quarter, driven by durable operating cash flow and further supported by proceeds from the nonstrategic asset sales, supporting our ongoing commitment to return capital to shareholders. SG&A expenses were $45 million in the first quarter of 2026 compared to $37 million in the first quarter of 2025, with the increase primarily driven by higher long-term incentive compensation for two reasons.

First, a little more than half of this increase was the result of the sharply higher stock price in the quarter. Second, the balance of the increase was the result of a GAAP accounting acceleration of expense recognition for long-term incentive compensation under an executive retention agreement, which we do not expect will recur in the remaining periods of this year. Turning to our business segments. Contract operations revenue came in at $331 million in the first quarter, up 10% compared to the first quarter of 2025, driven by growth in horsepower and higher pricing. Operating horsepower of 4.53 million at the end of the quarter was up approximately 250,000 year-over-year from 4.28 million in the first quarter of 2025.

Our adjusted gross margin percentage of 72% in the first quarter of 2026 reflects consistent profitability. While reported adjusted gross margin percentage was down from 78% last quarter, the figure increased slightly on a sequential basis after excluding the impact of out-of-period cash tax settlements and credits we benefited from during the fourth quarter of 2025 that were more onetime in nature. In our aftermarket services segment, we reported first quarter 2026 revenue of $43 million, reflecting lower service activity and a seasonal slowdown. Even with the expected seasonal softness, AMS delivered a great level of profitability. First quarter 2026 adjusted gross margin percentage was 23%, consistent with the high end of our guidance range for the year.

We ended the quarter with total debt of $2.4 billion. In January, we issued $800 million of senior notes to fund the April 1 repurchase of 100% of our senior notes due 2028 at par, which moves our nearest bond maturity to 2032. Pro forma for this activity, available liquidity was approximately $600 million. Our leverage ratio at quarter end was 2.6x compared to 2.7 in the fourth quarter of 2025 as we continue to operate comfortably below our stated target of 3x in the near term. We recently declared a first quarter dividend of $0.22 per share or $0.88 on an annualized basis. This is consistent with the fourth quarter '25 dividend level and up approximately 16% year-over-year.

Cash available for dividend for the first quarter of 2026 totaled $134 million, leading to robust quarterly dividend coverage of 3.5x. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 171,000 shares for approximately $4.4 million at an average price of $25.87 per share. This leaves approximately $113 million in remaining capacity for additional share repurchases. Given our solid first quarter performance, we reaffirmed our full year 2026 guidance with yesterday's earnings release. We remain on track to deliver our 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $865 million to $915 million. Segment performance in the first quarter was consistent with the basis of that guidance with strength in the underlying business, partially offset by higher SG&A.

We do not expect the $3.7 million of long-term compensation expense acceleration to recur in future periods for the remainder of 2026. In contract operations, our outlook reflects year-over-year growth in horsepower, revenue and profitability. In AMS, we expect revenue and profitability to remain strong. Turning to capital. On a full year basis, we continue to expect total 2026 capital expenditures to be approximately $400 million to $445 million. Within that total, we reiterate growth CapEx of $250 million to $275 million to support investment in newbuild horsepower and repackage CapEx to meet continued customer demand.

Growth is expected to be funded by operations with additional support from nonstrategic asset sale proceeds as we continue to high-grade our fleet, including year-to-date proceeds totaling approximately $21 million. Maintenance CapEx is forecasted to be approximately $125 million to $135 million, up versus 2025 due to increased planned overhaul activity. We also anticipate approximately $25 million to $35 million in other CapEx, primarily for new vehicles. In summary, we remain confident in the strength of our platform and in the long-term opportunity in front of us.

The combination of a fully utilized fleet and the continued build-out of U.S. midstream infrastructure to support both expected growth in LNG exports and rising power demand reinforces our view that the need for reliable compression remains strong. Against that backdrop, we are focused on excellent execution, delivering for our customers, advancing the technologies we've put in place, and adhering to a disciplined returns-based approach to capital allocation to grow the business and create long-term value for our shareholders. With that, Carrie, I believe we are ready to open the line for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question will come from Michael Blum with Wells Fargo.

Michael Blum: I wanted to start on the guidance. You made the comment that your first quarter underlying business performance is exceeding the basis for guidance, but you didn't raise guidance here. So is that just a function of the higher SG&A in Q1 or conservatism? Or is there something else?

Douglas Aron: Yes. Look, I would say, and I can't remember exactly what we did last year because I know we had an acquisition middle of the year. But it is -- for us, historically, to not do anything with guidance after only a quarter is not something that is unusual. And I think that it just feels early in the year. We've given a guidance range that we feel comfortable with. And we'll continue to look at that as we move through the year.

Michael Blum: Okay. Fair enough. Appreciate that. And then I wonder if you can just give us your latest view on Cat equipment lead time and how the order book is shaping up for 2027.

D. Childers: Yes. Cat lead times continue to extend out. So we're seeing an extreme tightness in the supply chain. I think that now we're out to close to 160 weeks. So it's meaningfully out there. The interpretation I'd offer that is interesting, though, this tightness in the market just reflects a market that I believe is coiled for growth. We see this in the overall burgeoning demand for natural gas. We see this in the amount of pipeline capacity expected to come online in 2026, the amount of LNG incrementally that's going to come online in 2026. We see it in the tightness in the supply chain. And candidly, we're seeing it in our bookings.

So this is a market that's just posed right now for that accelerated growth for the future and candidly for years. As far as 2027, we are definitely going to be placing orders and have placed orders to ensure we're positioned well to meet customer demand, but we're not yet giving guidance on CapEx for 2027.

Operator: Your next question will come from Elias Jossen with JPMorgan.

Elias Jossen: Congrats to Doug on your retirement and next steps ahead. Maybe to take that last point a step further. I know some of your peers have signaled reserving slots even past '27 and '28 and '29, just given the aforementioned tightness. Can you give any color just in terms of how you're thinking even multiple years ahead and what kind of discussions you're having with your customers so that they can ensure they're getting the equipment they need?

D. Childers: Yes. Thanks for the question. For the customers, we are working closely with our customers to advise where the lead times are and to help them ensure that they are not caught short and without equipment to produce and compress the gas that they're going to have in the coming years. When we think about our outlook for the business, we are seriously optimistic about the growth ahead. And that does mean we are absolutely going to use our incredibly strong balance sheet that positions us well to capture market going forward to place orders and ensure that we're not caught without equipment to support our customers' needs.

Thinking about years beyond 2026, we assess the market overall based on -- and we're willing to place orders based on a contract in hand, based upon a good lead and intel with our customers as well as strong market signals. And so we are going to be in the position to show up and have equipment for our customers and to move the market to capture market share in the future based upon the extreme tightness we see.

Elias Jossen: Got it. And then maybe just thinking about some of the strong performance we saw this quarter, it looked like pricing jumped up a bit. And I just want to get a sense, I know that you need to balance kind of those price increases with your customers' needs. But can you just give us a signal to how you see price trending throughout the year? And maybe also confirm the cadence for deployment of horsepower this year as well, how much we're expecting and when it should come on?

D. Childers: On the second part of the question first, the deployment of horsepower, it is the case that in Q1, we took -- that was the lowest quarter for us of deliveries of newbuild horsepower, and we expect future deliveries in future quarters of 2026 to continue to grow, and it's more back half weighted. So that -- you'll see that shape in the curve for new equipment deliveries. We expect that to translate to start activity for the same reason. As far as pricing goes, we are very happy to see the growth in revenue per horsepower that we delivered year-over-year on a sequential basis. It shows the strength in our business.

And I'm going to point out that our profitability above 70% now on a sustained -- for a sustained period of time, we are very happy with the overall pricing in the market, the returns we're achieving and expect to grow our business to achieve growing returns to our investors going forward. As far as particular pricing commentary right now and other points of strategy for the company, let's just say that we're very invested in growing this profitable business for the benefit of our investors.

Operator: Your next question will come from Jim Rollyson with Raymond James.

James Rollyson: Congrats, Doug, on your pending retirement, and we'll send you off properly in Aspen this summer, I think. Brad, on the oil price side, obviously, you guys have been in this kind of perfect environment until recently where gas outlook has been fantastic and you've been growing at a pretty rapid clip, and you've had somewhat muted oil prices that have kind of helped on the lube oil and fuel cost side of the equation, and that's obviously changed. So I'm kind of curious what you all are seeing there and how quickly can you pass those through so you can sustain these low 70% margins in that business?

D. Childers: We do expect to have some oil price headwinds primarily in the back half of the year as lube oil pricing for us adjusts quarterly. There's definitely a lag time between when we experience an increase in our costs and when we can pass them on to customers. And I'm not going to use the word transitory. However, what we see in the market today is that we are not willing to know or to guess where oil will ultimately resolve, and therefore, what base oil and lube oil pricing will ultimately result.

But what we see for this higher stock price, higher oil price environment today is it appears to be mostly driven by external events, notably hostility in the Middle East. And so we need to see where that resolves longer term. In the meantime, we did not change our guidance, notwithstanding what we see for risk on lube oil pricing for the back half of the year. We intend to mitigate that through the best cost management we can offer in the market to continue to deliver this high level of profitability and returns to our investors.

James Rollyson: Got it. Appreciate that. And then just on the asset sales side, you guys have been basically great portfolio managers for a while now where you keep high-grading assets and redeploying the capital. Just curious if you have any color or view, and maybe you don't yet. But just on how we should think about incremental kind of older asset sales that you're looking to monetize just as we think about how that impacts the numbers and there's obviously a lag between getting the capital and redeploying it. So just wondering how do you think about that going forward?

D. Childers: The fleet repositioning that we've been engaged in for the last number of years now has been remarkably consistent. And just when I think that we actually have de-aged the fleet and we don't -- we no longer have a lot of assets in that category for disposal, yet the calendar turns another year passes, and we find that there's still an opportunity for some assets that we believe will not be as competitive for the future. And so this program on our asset management that we've implemented has some real benefits, and it's really important.

And first and foremost, in keeping our fleet as competitive as we can keep it and in providing the best service to our customers that we can deliver. Second, when we look at the total ownership over the life of a unit, it allows us to really think about how to optimize the total cash flow coming out of the unit for its life, and to sell units while they still have meaningful market value, which is why we've been able to generate nice gain on sale on a fairly consistent basis to our asset management program over that period of time.

And then we take those proceeds and redeploy it into our newbuild program, which is a very efficient overall capital management program. And so -- and the third benefit is that even though I know this is a gain on sale income, in some ways, it accelerates some of that EBITDA into the period. So it's a really effective program when you think about those 3 primary benefits. So we're going to continue to engage in a very disciplined asset management approach. I do think that looking to our past levels is fairly indicative of what could happen in the future. It's very difficult to forecast this, but we're going to continue.

And that said, it's going to be consistent with past levels. But I do think it's going to ramp down a bit potentially lower going forward only because of the amazing growth environment that we find ourselves in as an industry in compression and for natural gas production, and because of the high quality and the repositioning we've already accomplished on the fleet.

Operator: Your next question will come from Nate Pendleton with Texas Capital.

Nathaniel Pendleton: Brad, in your prepared remarks, you called out improving compression demand outside of the Permian. Can you talk about where you see those opportunities geographically? And maybe if there's any difference in the unit sizes needed for those opportunities?

D. Childers: Yes. Great question. What we saw in the quarter was and really beneficially only about 35% of our bookings were in the Permian in the quarter. And so more were outside. And they're spread fairly evenly between the Northeast, the Mid-Continent, the South, and that would be East Texas, Haynesville and the Rockies. And so it's been a nice spread, but it's also been good to see units moving into other markets and other basins accomplishing some growth, especially on natural gas.

And the unit sizes are more diverse in the plays outside the Permian, especially in the electric motor drives that we're deploying, where we see a spread of horsepower more all the way from 400 to 800 and potentially -- and moving up to 1,500. So we do see more diversity, but it's primarily within the electric motor drives that we're seeing the smaller horsepower go out into the marketplace.

Nathaniel Pendleton: Got it. I appreciate that. And then as my follow-up, with the longer time lines for large horsepower units that's been very topical so far. Can you talk about if those -- if that delay changes your procurement strategy with packagers? Do you have to put down a deposit for the full unit so far in advance? And maybe can you help us understand the cash flow implications of such a long lead time for just the engines?

D. Childers: Well without going into too much on our procurement strategy and the work we do with our packagers, I will say we're very aligned with our packagers in fulfillment and making sure we can manage the need. It does not require a change in the overall kind of structure of the cash flows where we still expect to have very effective deployment of capital so that the unit revenue is recognized within 2 months to 3 months max of when the bulk of the capital goes out the door for a unit.

Operator: Your next question will come from Doug Irwin with Citi.

Douglas Irwin: Brad, you made a comment in your prepared remarks about maintaining flexibility for both organic and inorganic growth. Just curious if inorganic growth becomes even more attractive here just given where lead times are as well as the fact that you have a much stronger equity currency compared to the last few acquisitions you did?

D. Childers: We are extremely well positioned, both from a balance sheet perspective, given our low leverage ratio now and our equity position with our stock price, we're definitely really well positioned to finance any growth going forward, including inorganic growth. But I would say that it's not going to -- it doesn't make the targets look more attractive. And we're still going to be very disciplined in how we evaluate the opportunity set going forward. We want to make sure that if we see an opportunity that we know why we can use -- why we can add value to that opportunity or why that opportunity adds value to us.

So the discipline is going to remain outstanding, the really strong financial position we're in. But we do see that there are a number of opportunities in the marketplace that could develop over the coming years. And we're optimistic that just like our track record of having grown through acquisition with TOPS, with NGCSI, that there will be opportunities for us to deploy capital into the market through both means.

Douglas Irwin: Got it. And then maybe just a higher level one as a follow-up here. It sounds like you're working pretty closely with your own customers to make sure they have enough supply over the next year or so, but it's obviously a pretty dynamic market. So just curious to get your view on the balance of the broader market here going forward. I guess, is there a potential scenario where we could see compression become kind of a real near-term bottleneck if we see producers look to start accelerating activity into the back half of the year? Just curious kind of how much slack you see there being in the broader compressor market here.

D. Childers: I don't know that I have enough visibility into the market to be able to answer the question accurately. But I would step back and pose the following that for the United States to deliver all of the LNG we're targeting to export and all the power we expect to fuel through natural gas. I'm going to stick to that. It's in our lane. But we got -- we have a lot of power capacity, power plants, power generation to build. We have a lot of lines to lay. We have a lot of pipelines to lay. We have a lot of gas plants to go in, and we have a lot of compression to go into the market.

It is not all going to happen without some bottlenecks and delays along that entire supply chain. At Archrock, we're very invested in not being one of them.

Douglas Aron: Yes. And look, I think I'd just add, like with our utilization as high as it is the industry and tight utilization, as Brad pointed out, there are a lot of macro factors. We saw a large E&P make a pretty aggressive announcement earlier in the week about their ability to grow even this year. And I think we're going to do everything we can to continue to make sure we have equipment for our customers and support this growth for compression.

Operator: Your final question will come from Steve Ferazani with Sidoti.

Steve Ferazani: Brad and Doug, when I think about your fleet, which you've obviously spent several years high grading, it's higher -- it's larger horsepower units. It's a younger fleet. How do you think about changes in annual maintenance and other CapEx, particularly in a quarter where it looks like a lot of your guidance for the full year other CapEx was taken in Q1.

D. Childers: A few things you're seeing in our CapEx. Number one, our CapEx is typically dictated by what the units tell us they need from a time on location, time and operation and hours perspective. We are seeing an incremental uptick in our maintenance CapEx right now because of the time at which we added the horsepower in prior years, we just have more large horsepower due for major maintenance this year than we have in the most recent couple of years. So that's -- what you're going to see in major maintenance in particular, is just going to be exactly that the timing required for the units based upon hours of operation in the field, and that's what we're experiencing.

And even though we've de-aged the fleet nicely, we've standardized the mix of fleet really well, and we've increased the average size of horsepower and added in electric motor drives. The other aspect that you're seeing is that we grew through acquisition. And so some of what we're seeing for the year includes the NGCSI units coming into our fleet. And finally, we did go through a period of inflation that was pretty steep -- and so just the maintenance investment required for the same work has increased over time. So that's what you're seeing in our maintenance activity overall.

That said, we're very dedicated to ensuring we spend the maintenance capital required by the units to deliver superior customer service over time.

Steve Ferazani: And when we think about your other CapEx guidance for the year, it looks like you spent about half of it in Q1. Was there anything particular? Any reason to think that number could end up higher?

D. Childers: Likely just timing. The other CapEx is primarily trucks and computers. And so that would just mostly be the timing of delivery of our truck fleet to support the growth that we're seeing in the marketplace and making sure we have the right transportation for our mechanics.

Steve Ferazani: Got it. That's helpful. And then just -- I mean, you almost doubled your available liquidity sequentially with the asset sales. When you think about returning capital to shareholders, does that mean you can get more aggressive? Or do you have to carefully think about the multiyear likely expansion of your fleet given the expected demand growth?

D. Childers: Fortunately, we're in the position to be able to pay attention to both these key drivers of value creation for our investors. First and foremost, given the market we're in, as you just highlighted, growth, poised for growth and maintaining some dry powder for growth is absolutely strategically something we want to make sure we have done. But we do expect to continue to grow our cash returns to our investors over time as we grow our business. We certainly have the financial strength to do that comfortably.

Operator: There are no more questions. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Mr. Childers for final remarks.

D. Childers: Thank you for joining us today. We're pleased with our strong start to 2026 and remain focused on execution, profitable growth and returning capital to shareholders. We appreciate your support and look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect.