Archrock - Q1 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning. Welcome to the Archrock fourth quarter 2023 conference call. Your host for today's call is Megan Repine, Vice President of Investor Relations at Archrock. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Repine. You may now begin.

Megan Repine (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Ellie. Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us on today's call. With me today are Brad Childers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Archrock, and Doug Aaron, Chief Financial Officer of Archrock. Yesterday, Archrock released its financial and operating results for the first quarter, 2024. If you have not received a copy, you can find the information on the company's website at www.archrock.com. During this call, we will make forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, based on our current beliefs and expectations, as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to Archrock's management team. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.

Please refer to our latest filings with the SEC for a list of factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements made during this call. In addition, our discussion today will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA, gross margin, gross margin percentage, free cash flow, free cash flow after dividends, and cash available for dividend. For reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to our GAAP financial results, please see yesterday's press release and our Form 8-K furnished to the SEC. I'll now turn the call over to Brad to discuss Archrock's first quarter results and to provide an update of our business.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Thank you, Megan, and good morning, everyone. With a strong first quarter in the books, 2024 looks to be a promising and exciting year. Momentum in Archrock's earnings power is carrying into 2024, reflecting our excellent operational execution, high-quality asset base, and innovative processes and technology. Among the highlights, our net income of $41 million was up from $16 million in the first quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA of $131 million was up $34 million, or 35%, versus the prior year period. This increase was driven by pricing and profitability gains across all segments. We maintained our sector-leading financial position, driving our leverage ratio to an all-time low of 3.2 times. We continued to increase shareholder returns.

Our quarterly dividend per share was up 10% compared to a year ago, all while maintaining robust dividend coverage of 3.2 times for the quarter. In addition, we continued repurchasing shares under our buyback authorization, with inception-to-date program purchases now totaling more than $10 million at an average price of $12.11 per share. As Doug will discuss, because of our strong first quarter performance and confidence in our business outlook, we have raised the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA guidance for the full year. Given the magnitude of the operational and financial improvements we've achieved, as well as the consistency and execution we've demonstrated, I'd like to take a moment to pause and say a couple of things. First, I want to thank our employees.

Our performance is the result of the dedication and operating expertise our employees bring to deliver leading safety performance and excellent customer service each and every day. Thank you to the team. Thank you for leading at Archrock and for a job well done. Second, I want to expand further on the remarkable and enduring business we've built. This year marks the seventieth anniversary of our company's founding, and we kicked off celebrations with a ringing of the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange last Friday. This milestone has given us the opportunity to reflect on where the company has been, the premier compression company we've built, and the promise that lies ahead of our transformed business.

From our first-rate customer base to our highly standardized fleet and excellent customer service, for which we are known in the field, to our most recent digitization and emissions reduction efforts, the actions we've taken to enhance our business should benefit our performance for years to come. We also continue to have confidence in the strong compression market fundamentals and see three primary drivers, which should support a sustained opportunity set for Archrock. First, growth in natural gas production. The U.S. natural gas production forecasts we track are indicating flat natural gas production for 2024, following a record production year in 2023. Associated gas production in key Archrock oil-producing markets like the Permian, however, is still expected to increase. That forecasted increase in Permian natural gas production is certainly consistent with the increase in compression demand we have and continue to experience there in 2024.

In addition, the pause in total U.S. natural gas volume growth is expected to be short-lived, given the visible slate of global LNG projects that have already been approved and sanctioned and are expected to result in increased U.S. natural gas production over the next five years and in a sustained call on U.S. natural gas production longer term. Domestic power generation could also provide upside to current domestic natural gas demand and production estimates, as we're just beginning to understand the magnitude and timing of the possible opportunity that onshoring of AI data centers creates. The second factor is the heightened capital discipline across the energy sector. Our customers, peers, and suppliers are balancing growth with returns to shareholders.

After years of poor financial performance within the energy space, investors are demanding higher financial returns, and we believe the increased level of capital discipline that we're seeing throughout the oil and gas value chain supports this inflection. Third, and finally, we're excited to be a crucial part of the value chain to provide cleaner, affordable, and reliable energy to the U.S. and the world in the form of natural gas. Through Archrock's incremental investments in electric motor drive compression and our work to bring methane emissions detection, measurement, and capture solutions to market, we intend to do our part. Success by the sector would help extend the use of our affordable and abundant natural gas resource as a low-emission source of reliable power generation, as well as the use of billions of dollars of existing energy infrastructure for decades to come. Moving on to our segments.

Our contract operations business segment continued to show broad-based signs of strength, including historically high levels of utilization, pricing, and profitability, which we currently expect to maintain throughout the year, given tightness in the market. A few observations of what we're experiencing will help demonstrate the market strength we are seeing. Demand, pricing, and returns for new build equipment remain robust. We are sold out of 2024, and we continue to book equipment well into 2025. While the growth continues to be led by the Permian, we're also seeing demand for new equipment in other markets, including the Rockies. Similar to 2023, stop activity remains at low levels. Market tightness in associated gas plays, like the Permian, is being further supported by demand for gas lift, given its cost-effectiveness and reliable uptime. Today, gas lift represents around 22% of our operating horsepower.

This strength is evident in our quarterly performance metrics. We exited the first quarter with near record utilization of 95%, and based on what we see in the markets today, we expect to be able to maintain utilization in the mid-90s this year. Given high levels of horsepower utilization for Archrock and the industry, we're maintaining the pricing prerogative and capturing additional rate increments. The first quarter marks our 10th consecutive quarter of sequential increases in our monthly revenue per horsepower, which increased by 5% to $20.62. Continued price increases and strong cost control drove an increase in our gross margin percentage to 65%, up 700 basis points year-over-year, and 100 basis points compared to the last quarter.

Looking ahead, we're focused on defending this high level of profitability and remain ambitious about driving additional profitability gains, especially as we leverage the capabilities of our investments in innovative technology to digitize and increasingly automate our operating platform. The aftermarket services segment had a solid quarter during what is typically a seasonally slower period. Revenues were up 8% year-over-year due to higher pricing and as great service is driving repeat business with customers. First quarter profitability exceeded our guidance expectation as we continue to focus on higher quality and higher marginal work. Shifting to our capital allocation framework for 2024, we remain committed to free cash flow generation, as well as our returns-based approach to capital allocation. We're increasing capital returns to shareholders.

Our recently declared quarterly dividend per share was up 10% on an annual basis, and our board of directors recently approved an extension of our share repurchase authorization with renewed available capacity of $50 million. We're continuing to meet the needs of our customer base through new build investments. These investments will be funded by operations and supported by attractive returns. Finally, we maintain an industry-leading balance sheet and leverage position. With a debt we've repaid over the last 4 years, and more recently, the strong earnings momentum in the last several quarters, we are well within our target leverage ratio of 3-3.5 times. In summary, we have confidence in the favorable and durable macro environment, particularly given strong oil prices, which are driving sustainable compression demand in our key associated gas markets, led by the Permian Basin.

Our transformed platform is delivering meaningful growth in quarterly revenue, gross margin, and adjusted EBITDA. Strong cash flow is funding high-return investments in our fleet and increased return of capital to investors, while we also continue to maintain a sector-leading balance sheet and financial flexibility. As I opened the call with, I am proud of Archrock's 70-year legacy. But with the market we see ahead and our transformed platform, I'm even more excited about our company's future. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Doug for a review of our first quarter performance and provide additional color on our updated 2024 guidance.

Doug Aron (CFO)

Thanks, Brad, and good morning, everyone. Let's look at a summary of our first quarter results and then cover our financial outlook. Net income for the first quarter of 2024 was $41 million. This included a non-cash $3 million long-lived asset impairment. We reported Adjusted EBITDA of $131 million for the first quarter, 2024. Underlying business performance was strong in the first quarter as we delivered higher total gross margin dollars for both segments on a sequential basis. Results further benefited from $2 million in net asset sale gains related to non-strategic horsepower sales. Turning to our business segment, contract operations revenue came in at $223 million for the first quarter, up 5% compared to the fourth quarter. This increase was driven by higher pricing.

First quarter 2024 exit utilization remained near an all-time high at 95%, but was down slightly compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, primarily because we took delivery of 19,500 horsepower of new build units in March that were included in the total available horsepower, but not reflected in total operating horsepower as the units did not begin generating revenue until April. On this point, please note that our utilization calculation methodology does not include newly acquired horsepower in our operating horsepower unless and until that horsepower is generating revenue, even if the units are under contract, which substantially all of our current backlog is. Compared to the fourth quarter, we grew our gross margin dollars by 6%. This resulted in a gross margin percentage of 65% compared to 64% last quarter.

In our aftermarket services segment, we reported first quarter 2024 revenue of $45 million, down slightly compared to the fourth quarter due to seasonality, but up 8% on a year-over-year basis. First quarter AMS gross margin of 23% compared to the fourth quarter of 22%. We exited the quarter with total debt of $1.6 billion and strong available liquidity of $478 million. Variable rate debt continued to represent less than 20% of our total long-term debt. Our leverage ratio at quarter end was 3.2x, calculated as total debt divided by trailing 12-month Adjusted EBITDA. This was down from 3.5x at year-end 2023. We remain committed to maintaining a consistent leverage ratio of 3-3.5x through cycles.

In March, S&P Global Ratings upgraded Archrock's issuer credit rating to double B minus from single B plus with a stable outlook. S&P also raised the issue level rating on Archrock's senior unsecured debt to double B minus from single B plus. The strong financial flexibility I just described continued to support increased capital returns to our shareholders. We recently declared a first quarter dividend of $0.165 per share, or $0.66 on an annualized basis. This is consistent with the fourth quarter 2023 dividend level and up 10% versus the year-ago period. Cash available for dividend for the first quarter of 2024 totaled $82 million, leading to impressive quarterly dividend coverage of 3.2 times.

In addition to paying our quarterly dividend during the quarter, we repurchased approximately 83,000 shares for $1.2 million at an average price of $14.83 per share. Last week, our board of directors reauthorized our share repurchase program, which was set to expire in April, for an additional 24-month time period. The reauthorized share repurchase program allows us to repurchase up to an additional $50 million of outstanding common stock. Turning to guidance, we are executing well compared to the outlook we provided in February, and are confident in our ability to sustain historically high levels of utilization, pricing, and profitability for the balance of the year.

Considering excellent first quarter performance, we are raising our 2024 annual Adjusted EBITDA guidance range to $510 million-$540 million, from $500 million-$530 million previously. The midpoint of our improved guidance range represents an increase of 17% compared to $450 million in 2023. We now expect 2024 growth CapEx to total approximately $100 million. This is flat compared to growth CapEx of $190 million in 2023, and slightly higher than our prior guidance of between $175 million and $180 million, as a result of approximately $20 million in carryover cash CapEx for new equipment that was expected to be delivered in late 2023 and was delayed.

... For clarity, if I misspoke, our guidance for 2024 growth CapEx is expected to be $190 million. Importantly, we still expect to generate free cash flow after dividend, given the enhanced financial performance I just described, as well as the $14 million in non-strategic asset sale proceeds that we generated in the quarter, which reduced our net CapEx forecast. Our full year 2024 maintenance CapEx forecast of $80 million-$85 million and other CapEx forecast of $20million-$25 million both remain unchanged. In summary, we are delivering exceptional execution, reflecting four primary drivers, which are also contributing to Archrock's strong outlook for 2024. These drivers include our transformed platform, our strong financial position and prudent capital allocation, a robust market for compression, and a bright future for natural gas to meet the growing demand for cleaner energy.

With that, Ellie, we'd now like to open up the line for questions.

Operator (participant)

Opening the floor for question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone keypad. That's star and 1 on your telephone keypad. Our first question comes from Jim Rollyson from Raymond James. Your line is now open.

Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Hey, good morning, everyone, and congrats on another fantastic operating quarter. Brad-

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Thanks, Jim.

Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

You have, you and I have had this conversation many times in the past, and you've talked about kind of ultimately in a cycle like we're in, the upside on pricing is kind of driven by where returns ultimately are and what your customers will allow you to take before they would be willing to do the projects themselves. If you look at kind of where those returns are today, given what's happened on the cost inflation side and the offsetting pricing gains you've had, I'm, I'm curious, you know, your, your average revenue per horsepower per month. I think you said it was 20.5 this, this quarter. Recently at our conference in Orlando, you know, I asked Doug about where leading edge was, and it was kind of in the mid-20s.

I'm trying to understand where you think that pricing level can go, given the backdrop of LNG, of power demand growth, et cetera. I mean, I presume mid-20s maybe isn't the stopping point, but it's certainly kind of the near-term bogey to try and aspire getting your whole fleet to. So just maybe some context around, you know, where you think leading edge is today and where you think that might go, just based on the market backdrop.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Thanks, Jim. A few comments. First, when I think of spot pricing on a year-over-year basis, the good news is that 2023-2024, we still see pricing momentum, and we see spot pricing up. Now, though, more in the single digits compared to what we experienced over the last three years. Second, we know we have an opportunity to continue to see pricing gains on the installed base, and we're excited about that. And it is reflected in our guidance, for sure. But that's the opportunity that we see on pricing, is that the market is still supportive of price increases, and we like both what's going on on the spot pricing basis, as well as the opportunity to bring up the rate, the installed base, not just new starts.

The second comment I'd make is that we would not give forward-looking guidance on pricing at a future range, period. It's probably just not the prerogative of us to guide pricing or to set a future pricing level. So I'd like to just pull back off of that. We're not gonna be able to share a target or a range for future pricing for a lot of reasons. So just, just so you know, we don't, we don't really want to go there at all. But a real point that you raised in your question is that, you know, our returns are good, but the market's gonna require higher returns going forward of our customers and of us. The price for new units today is up something like 30% since 2021.

Pricing, and inflation for parts, pricing and inflation for the cost of labor are all up. Pricing had to go up to regain and recover that territory, and candidly, we have. In addition, cost of capital is up, and returns on investment expectations are also up. As an industry, we have to deliver better returns. As a business, we have to deliver better returns, and we believe that our customer base is supportive of that because they're seeing the same demands from their investors.

Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Got it. That's helpful color. That's exactly kind of where I'm going, just with this, is kind of the, what the implication is for the trajectory of, of pricing from here. Maybe switching gears on the free cash flow side, I mean, you guys obviously have continued to bring leverage down. Your dividend coverage, it climbed again to over 3x, led to the dividend increase. I'm curious how you think or how you and the board think about distributing that cash. You boosted dividends 10% this last quarter. You just refreshed the buyback program. You guys have been probably lighter users so far on the buyback program, but trying to, you know, walk through maybe how you think about allocating that capital between debt repayment, now that that's leverage is in your targeted zone, versus dividend growth, versus using the buyback program.

Are you just opportunistic on the buyback or how, like, how do you think about that structure?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

... First, we're really excited about the financial position and the financial flexibility that we have on our platform and in our structure and balance sheet today. We fully intend to be focused on generating great returns of cash to our investors. And it's an exciting time to be in the position we're in with the number of levers we have to pull. So starting off with the dividend, we acknowledge that 10% increase year-over-year has been good, and with the financial performance that we have now, we will be revisiting that dividend rate with our board every quarter to discuss what the right level is going to be. But note, our goal is to deliver a consistent dividend and dividend growth through the cycle.

We're at, you know, at a strong part in the cycle, and so we wanna be thoughtful about how we do that. Second, on buybacks, we are going to target being as systematic as we can be in execution of the share repurchases over time. That does take into account price and returns, however, because our entire approach is to put our cash where we can generate the best returns. And when we can do that for equity, we absolutely are gonna do that for equity as opposed to debt, because the returns on debt right now, we know what that looks like, and that's the easiest to compute. And finally, we're in a position where the market ahead is going to be robust.

What we see, and I said it in my comments, is flat natural gas production in the U.S. for 2024 is going to change in 2025 and beyond. Our customers are working on getting ready for that. We are working on getting ready for that as well. So we see a bit of a pause right now, but growth ahead, so that capital allocation is also gonna go toward funding that growth for the benefit of our customers. But finally, you know, with the net result, that we absolutely are going to work hard to generate free cash flow in the capital allocation scheme. So that's the way we think about it, Jim. And we're just excited that we know that that means we have future opportunities to return more capital to our investors.

Doug Aron (CFO)

I would just say one more thing. Hey, one second, Jim. At the risk of being defensive, which is definitely not the intent when you reference slightly less usage, perhaps under that share buyback program, I would offer, as a differentiator against any other public compression company, that we, I believe, are the only ones delivering, you know, both, you know, growth in horsepower, growth in dividend, and a share repurchase program. And so, I think all of those are, you know, shareholder-friendly and things that owners of Archrock have both appreciated and will continue to appreciate into the future.

Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Absolutely, Doug. It wasn't a slight against you. It was more just a relative where capital was going between dividend-

Doug Aron (CFO)

Didn't take it that way. Just a short advertisement, Jim. Thanks.

Jim Rollyson (Director and Equity Research Analyst)

Sure. Well, it's a high-class problem to have to take of many. So, congrats again, guys. Thanks.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Thank you, Jim.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Selman Akyol from Stifel. Your line is now open.

Selman Akyol (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Thank you. Good morning.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Good morning.

Selman Akyol (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

So you talked about the gas lift market, and I was wondering if you could expand a little bit on that, what kind of opportunities do you see there, and maybe talk a little bit about the customer demand you're seeing there? And then does that also have similar economics relative to what you think of coming off the backside of the plants and transportation?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Thanks, Selman. I'll talk about the market opportunity first. Number one, what we see for gas lift, it's grown proportionately with what we've seen for gathering. Stated differently, the percentage and mix of what we have for compression on gas lift on a horsepower basis has basically been a consistent percentage compared to the entire fleet in application to gathering and gas lift. It's moved around a little bit, but been very consistent. So... And as you know, gas lift is really directed for oil production. It's used to, you know, like an ESP or other technology, to help relieve the pressure in the wellbore itself to facilitate production. So gas lift, very directly tied to oil production as opposed to just pure gas production and gas gathering.

And that means that it's a good market because we see in, you know, forecast for oil growth going forward, and especially in the Permian. So it's a super strong market. We're gonna, I think, continue to see good growth there, and we're gonna benefit from it. As far as the back part of your question, related to what we see on the recompression post-plant, no, the-- they're totally different applications, to be direct. That's much more of a transportation and gathering application than-

Selman Akyol (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Yeah, I misspoke on that. I guess what I'm just curious is, if you think about just the gathering side of it versus the gas lift, is it the same contract tenor? Is it the same pricing? Are you seeing all the same dynamics in one versus the other?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Yeah, the dynamics are very comparable. The economics are identical. Compression equipment is the same in both applications.

Selman Akyol (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Understood. And then you undertook an optimization effort, I guess, through data gathering. Can you talk about how's that going and where you see that?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Yes. It's pretty exciting stuff, to be honest, because over the last, you know, three years, we've added telemetry to every unit in the field, with multiple points of data coming in off of the edge devices. That's being collected through a data engine that we are just starting to really figure out how to utilize very well to improve and drive great customer service, economics and efficiency in the field, and the technicians and service managers that are really on the front end of utilizing that. What's great about the information that's coming in, is that on a preventative and predictive maintenance perspective, we can look at what's going on with the units remotely and start to diagnose and address issues before they turn into downtime. That's super exciting.

We can do a lot of that work, you know, over the air through adjustments with increasing efforts to automate aspects of what we're operating in the field today. So all of that, we believe, is going to continue to allow us to offer a differentiated level of customer service and a much higher level of efficiency. We expect to have to roll the trucks and go touch the units less than in the past when we did not have this technology available for us. So it's a pretty exciting time. That's the way that optimization is working.

Selman Akyol (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Any ideas when we should start expecting to see that show up in margins?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

You're seeing some of that show up in margins already. By the way, the beauty of that is the customers are also experiencing that at a customer service level. So when you think about the amount of profitability that we should be allowed in this business, given the investments we've made, the improvements in service that we're delivering, we're pretty ambitious that we should be able to turn that into margin, on a go-forward basis as well.

Selman Akyol (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Understood. And then last one, just in terms of following up to the last question and some of your answers there, you talked, I guess, about seeing LNG and talking about sort of robust growth ahead, and I'm just translating that in my mind to sort of CapEx budgets as you think about capital allocation. So, I guess you're positioning us to expect higher CapEx expenditures going forward into 2025 and 2026?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Directly, no. We are not positioning the expectation for higher CapEx in 2025, and yet we are also not providing guidance for 2025. It's still early going in 2024. It's gonna be a while before we can get there. But what I would say is that we're excited that the market remains as tight and as robust as we are seeing. We are not adjusting our capital allocation framework, and we're not trying to guide an expectation of a different level of investment in the future. We still remain very dedicated to returning cash to investors and to generating free cash flow.

Selman Akyol (Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Perfect. Thanks so much.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Yep, thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Josh Jayne from Daniel Energy Partners. Your line is now open.

Josh Jayne (Managing Director)

Thanks. Good morning.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Good morning. Welcome.

Josh Jayne (Managing Director)

I just wanted to go back to something you noted on your last conference call, that 30% of equipment is typically leased, 70% owned, but in the Permian, that lease percentage is much higher. I was hoping you guys could just expand on why exactly that is, and where you expect the Permian to rank from sort of an incremental horsepower standpoint over the next couple of years.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Yes. Thank you for the question. First, the data on this is not 100% known. That is, we don't have complete accurate visibility into the amount of horsepower owned and operated by all the customers. So our comments are, we believe, are directional and accurate, but not exact, just because that information is not available. So with that caveat, what I'd share is that the Permian was growing fast over the most recent period of time, at a time when the entire industry, including the producers and the midstreamers, service providers, compression service providers, were all focused on capital discipline and reining that in. That was supportive of candidly, more outsourcing for capital reasons, we think, by the producers and by the midstreamers than we had experienced before this most recent capital discipline era.

We think that was one driver. The second thing that we know as a driver is the availability of compression, experience, and labor. I think our customer base was very happy and to outsource more to the industry, because it's expertise and labor that's available in-house that was not necessarily one pocket of experience they wanted to build for themselves. So with those factors, I think being the primary drivers of the market, we think that the amount of horsepower that's gone into the Permian has not been aligned with that 70/30 balance. We don't know if it's more 60/40, but that's probably a fair estimate of what we think has happened in that part of the market.

And as evidence of that, by the way, we know there's more compression that is operated by the outsource service providers, like Archrock, and certainly including Archrock, in the midstream sector than there ever has been in the past. So we think that the direction is clear, the numbers are not.

Josh Jayne (Managing Director)

That, that's great. Thank you. And maybe just one other question. Geographically, could you sort of walk around the areas outside of the Permian where you might expect to see growth? You mentioned the Rockies in your prepared remarks. I'm just curious how you see you know, the other markets across the U.S. developing here, not only through the end of this year, but moving forward into 25 and 26.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

The pockets where we've seen the most traction and growth recently, and where we expect to see so in the future outside of the Permian, include certainly the Rockies, South Texas, and the Northeast. That's where we've experienced the growth, and that's where we believe we will see incremental growth. But I'm gonna be clear, 60% of our growth and our CapEx is going into the Permian today, and everything else is participating in the remainder. And so the Permian remains the market for growth, and everything else is an incremental growth opportunity for us.

Josh Jayne (Managing Director)

Great. Thank you very much.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Before we proceed to the next question, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star and number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from Stephen Ferazani from Sidoti & Company. Your line is now open.

Steve Ferazani (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Good afternoon, Brad, Doug. I wanted to ask about the continued strength in aftermarket. It's multiple quarters, over $45 million in revenue, and now a second out of four quarters where your margin's 23% or better. Multiple quarters ago, we talked—you talked about the strength coming from pent-up demand coming out of COVID and maintenance overdue, but you're continuing to grow that business. It's up 8% year-over-year. Same type of demand patterns you're seeing on the contract compression or anything different going on in aftermarket?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Steve, thanks for the question. The driver really of the revenue, but certainly the margin expansion that you're seeing in AMS, is due to a couple of things. Number one, the mix. So we're seeing a higher amount of service work compared to just parts pull-through, and that's certainly impacting the margin. And second, the team's done a great job of seeking higher margin work with customers. And then finally, I'm just gonna point out that the market for labor is really tight today, and we have a tremendously talented workforce that is in high demand. We don't necessarily see that abating. And I'm also gonna just close with, however, it's a notoriously difficult business to forecast. So with that caveat, we still are very bullish and ambitious of the value that we're gonna get from through the AMS business segment in 2024.

Steve Ferazani (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

You noted how much of that's tied to the strength in your service personnel and your response times. How has it worked for you in terms of ability to retain labor and labor costs? Is it easier in what would be a weaker market in other ends of oil and gas right now?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Directly, the answer is yes. This slight lull that we're seeing in natural gas production growth and in the market right now, as everybody's getting ready for what's gonna be a ramp in 25 and beyond, has given us an opportunity to stabilize, and we've seen that in the labor pool a bit. That said, we still cannot get enough labor. More labor is gonna equate to more work and growth in our AMS business, in particular. So we're still, you know, fighting the good fight to bring in and train as much talent as we can. The market is really still looking for more.

Steve Ferazani (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Just a quick one on the fleet high grading. What's left in terms of make ready on idle capacity? I know your maintenance CapEx was down again. I'm assuming it was reduced make ready and general asset sales. Are we at the latter stages on that?

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

We are. We're really happy with the progress we've made to standardize the fleets and, you know, to improve our fleet competitiveness, fleet age. All of that was really critical before we invested in and added the technology into the field that we've added. But we still have a few pockets in some of the outlying basins that we would be willing to sell for the right price. But candidly, in the market that we're in, we're just as happy to continue to operate it as we are to part with it. So it's all gonna be a function of the buyer's appetite and assignment of value.

Steve Ferazani (Senior Equity Research Analyst)

Great. Thanks very much.

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Thank you.

Operator (participant)

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

Brad Childers (President and CEO)

Great. Thank you, everyone, for participating in our first quarter call. Archrock is in an enviable position, and the market is strong. 2024 is off to a great start, and I look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. Thank you, everyone.

Operator (participant)

Thank you all for attending today's call. We hope you have a wonderful day. You may now all disconnect.