Blackstone Inc. Trims Stock Position in Aris Water Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:ARIS)

Blackstone Inc. lessened its position in shares of Aris Water Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:ARIS) by 94.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 10,986 shares of the company’s stock after selling 196,869 shares during the period. Blackstone Inc.’s holdings in Aris Water Solutions were worth $263,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ARIS. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of Aris Water Solutions in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Larson Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Aris Water Solutions in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Aris Water Solutions during the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Bridge City Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Aris Water Solutions by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Bridge City Capital LLC now owns 201,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,556 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Aris Water Solutions by 38.1% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,779 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,000 after purchasing an additional 1,594 shares during the last quarter. 39.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Aris Water Solutions news, major shareholder Yorktown Energy Partners Xi, L sold 1,000,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.70, for a total value of $27,700,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Jeffrey K. Hunt sold 10,000 shares of Aris Water Solutions stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.92, for a total value of $289,200.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 44,827 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,296,396.84. The trade was a 18.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,070,604 shares of company stock worth $29,817,145. 23.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on ARIS. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Aris Water Solutions from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Aris Water Solutions from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Evercore ISI downgraded 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 research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective (up from $18.00) on shares of Aris Water Solutions in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Aris Water Solutions currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.00.

Aris Water Solutions Price Performance

ARIS stock opened at $25.50 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.88 and a beta of 1.85. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $28.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.72, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. Aris Water Solutions, Inc. has a 12-month low of $13.34 and a 12-month high of $33.95.

Aris Water Solutions Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This is a positive change from Aris Water Solutions’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%. Aris Water Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.00%.

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.