Aris Water Solutions (NYSE:ARIS) vs. Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Financial Comparison

Aris Water Solutions (NYSE:ARIS) and Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Aris Water Solutions has a beta of 1.65, suggesting that its share price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Liberty Energy has a beta of 1.82, suggesting that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

39.7% of Aris Water Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.2% of Liberty Energy shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.1% of Aris Water Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Liberty Energy shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Aris Water Solutions pays an annual dividend of $0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Liberty Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Aris Water Solutions pays out 58.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Liberty Energy pays out 10.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Aris Water Solutions and Liberty Energy, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aris Water Solutions	0	1	6	0	2.86
Liberty Energy	0	4	6	0	2.60

Aris Water Solutions currently has a consensus target price of $14.93, indicating a potential downside of 0.01%. Liberty Energy has a consensus target price of $25.50, indicating a potential upside of 26.11%. Given Liberty Energy’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Liberty Energy is more favorable than Aris Water Solutions.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Aris Water Solutions and Liberty Energy’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aris Water Solutions	$392.12 million	2.21	$18.89 million	$0.72	20.74
Liberty Energy	$4.56 billion	0.74	$556.32 million	$2.74	7.38

Liberty Energy has higher revenue and earnings than Aris Water Solutions. Liberty Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aris Water Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Aris Water Solutions and Liberty Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aris Water Solutions	5.73%	4.62%	2.35%
Liberty Energy	10.43%	26.46%	15.66%

Summary

Liberty Energy beats Aris Water Solutions on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. Aris Water Solutions, Inc. was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Liberty Energy

Liberty Energy Inc. provides hydraulic services and related technologies to onshore oil and natural gas exploration, and production companies in North America. The company offers hydraulic fracturing services, including complementary services, such as wireline services, proppant delivery solutions, field gas processing and treating, compressed natural gas (CNG) delivery, data analytics, related goods comprising sand mine operations, and technologies; and well site fueling and logistics. As of as of December 31, 2023, the company owned and operated a fleet of approximately 40 active hydraulic fracturing; and two sand mines in the Permian Basin. In addition, the company provides services primarily in the Permian Basin, the Williston Basin, the Eagle Ford Shale, the Haynesville Shale, the Appalachian Basin (Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale), the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, the Denver-Julesburg Basin (the DJ Basin), and the Anadarko Basin. Liberty Energy Inc. was formerly known as Liberty Oilfield Services Inc. and changed its name to Liberty Energy Inc. in April 2022. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.