Aris Water Solutions (NYSE:ARIS) Shares Down 5.5% – Should You Sell?

Aris Water Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:ARIS)’s share price fell 5.5% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $27.11 and last traded at $27.16. 118,985 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 475,794 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.73.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on ARIS. Evercore ISI downgraded Aris Water Solutions from an “outperform” rating to an “in-line” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Aris Water Solutions from $21.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Aris Water Solutions from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $19.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $26.00 target price (up previously from $18.00) on shares of Aris Water Solutions in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Aris Water Solutions from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Aris Water Solutions currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.00.

Aris Water Solutions Trading Down 8.9 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.73 and a beta of 1.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 1.72. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $27.02 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.42.

Aris Water Solutions Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 27th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Aris Water Solutions’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.14%. Aris Water Solutions’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.00%.

Insider Activity at Aris Water Solutions

In related news, major shareholder S Corp Gable sold 57,731 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.55, for a total transaction of $1,475,027.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 3,165,939 shares in the company, valued at $80,889,741.45. This represents a 1.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Delaware Energy Llc sold 3,223,670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.81, for a total transaction of $83,202,922.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,159,678 shares of company stock worth $106,807,774 in the last 90 days. 23.06% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. New York State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in Aris Water Solutions by 2,346.0% during the third quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 2,346 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Aris Water Solutions in the third quarter worth $514,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Aris Water Solutions in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Aris Water Solutions by 53.0% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $355,000 after purchasing an additional 7,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Aris Water Solutions in the 3rd quarter valued at $10,828,000. Institutional investors 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.