GFL Environmental (NYSE:GFL) versus Aris Water Solutions (NYSE:ARIS) Critical Comparison

GFL Environmental (NYSE:GFL) and Aris Water Solutions (NYSE:ARIS) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

GFL Environmental has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Aris Water Solutions has a beta of 1.67, indicating that its stock price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares GFL Environmental and Aris Water Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
GFL Environmental	$5.62 billion	3.22	-$527.43 million	$6.35	7.83
Aris Water Solutions	$435.44 million	3.22	$26.86 million	$0.83	28.61

Aris Water Solutions has lower revenue, but higher earnings than GFL Environmental. GFL Environmental 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for GFL Environmental and Aris Water Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
GFL Environmental	0	1	8	2	3.09
Aris Water Solutions	0	5	2	0	2.29

GFL Environmental currently has a consensus target price of $57.8571, suggesting a potential upside of 16.34%. Aris Water Solutions has a consensus target price of $26.50, suggesting a potential upside of 11.59%. Given GFL Environmental’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe GFL Environmental is more favorable than Aris Water Solutions.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

64.7% of GFL Environmental shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.7% of Aris Water Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.7% of GFL Environmental shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 22.5% of Aris Water Solutions shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares GFL Environmental and Aris Water Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
GFL Environmental	48.53%	3.71%	1.42%
Aris Water Solutions	6.00%	3.77%	1.99%

Dividends

GFL Environmental pays an annual dividend of $0.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Aris Water Solutions pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. GFL Environmental pays out 0.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aris Water Solutions pays out 67.5% 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. GFL Environmental has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Aris Water Solutions has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Summary

GFL Environmental beats Aris Water Solutions on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About GFL Environmental

GFL Environmental Inc. offers non-hazardous solid waste management and environmental services in Canada and the United States. It offers solid waste management, liquid waste management, and soil remediation services, including collection, transportation, transfer, recycling, and disposal services for municipal, residential, and commercial, and industrial customers. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Vaughan, Canada.

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.