Aris Water Solutions (NYSE:ARIS) Cut to Sell at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Aris Water Solutions (NYSE:ARIS) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report released on Friday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Evercore ISI cut Aris Water Solutions from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and raised their price target for the company from $25.00 to $27.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Aris Water Solutions from $21.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $26.00 price target (up from $18.00) on shares of Aris Water Solutions in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Aris Water Solutions from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Aris Water Solutions from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.00.

Aris Water Solutions Price Performance

Shares of Aris Water Solutions stock opened at $25.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.60 and a beta of 1.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 1.72. Aris Water Solutions has a twelve month low of $12.44 and a twelve month high of $33.95. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.70.

Aris Water Solutions Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This is a boost from Aris Water Solutions’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.22%. Aris Water Solutions’s payout ratio is currently 70.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Brunt David Dylan Van sold 32,305 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.15, for a total transaction of $973,995.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 85,656 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,582,528.40. The trade was a 27.39 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Yorktown Energy Partners Xi, L sold 1,000,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.70, for a total transaction of $27,700,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 1,070,604 shares of company stock valued at $29,817,145 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 23.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aris Water Solutions

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ARIS. Quarry LP bought a new stake in Aris Water Solutions during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Aris Water Solutions during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Aris Water Solutions in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. acquired a new position in Aris Water Solutions in the 4th quarter worth $52,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Aris Water Solutions by 74.5% during the 4th quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,042 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,000 after purchasing an additional 1,726 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 39.71% of the company’s stock.

About Aris Water Solutions

Aris Water Solutions, Inc, an environmental infrastructure and solutions company, provides water handling and recycling solutions. The company's produced water handling business gathers, transports, unless recycled, and handles produced water generated from oil and natural gas production. Its water solutions business develops and operates recycling facilities to treat, store, and recycle produced water.