Head-To-Head Contrast: Solaris Energy Infrastructure (NYSE:SEI) and Select Water Solutions (NYSE:WTTR)

Select Water Solutions (NYSE:WTTR) and Solaris Energy Infrastructure (NYSE:SEI) are both mid-cap energy companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Select Water Solutions and Solaris Energy Infrastructure, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Select Water Solutions	0	3	6	0	2.67
Solaris Energy Infrastructure	1	1	10	0	2.75

Select Water Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $23.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.04%. Solaris Energy Infrastructure has a consensus price target of $87.17, suggesting a potential upside of 34.72%. Given Solaris Energy Infrastructure’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Solaris Energy Infrastructure is more favorable than Select Water Solutions.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Select Water Solutions and Solaris Energy Infrastructure”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Select Water Solutions	$1.41 billion	2.04	$21.22 million	$0.28	73.98
Solaris Energy Infrastructure	$622.21 million	7.96	$30.17 million	$0.85	76.12

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

Profitability

This table compares Select Water Solutions and Solaris Energy Infrastructure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Select Water Solutions	2.24%	3.11%	1.92%
Solaris Energy Infrastructure	7.19%	13.26%	4.80%

Dividends

Select Water Solutions pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Solaris Energy Infrastructure pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Select Water Solutions pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Solaris Energy Infrastructure pays out 56.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Select Water Solutions has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Select Water Solutions is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

81.7% of Select Water Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Solaris Energy Infrastructure shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.2% of Select Water Solutions shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 20.2% of Solaris Energy Infrastructure shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Select Water Solutions has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Solaris Energy Infrastructure has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Solaris Energy Infrastructure beats Select Water Solutions on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Select Water Solutions

Select Water Solutions, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides water management and chemical solutions to the energy industry in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Water Services, Water Infrastructure, and Chemical Technologies. The Water Services segment provides water-related services, including water sourcing, water transfer, flowback and well testing, water containment, fluids hauling, water monitoring, and water network automation; technology solutions comprising hydrographic mapping, water volume and quality monitoring, remote pit and tank monitoring, leak detection, asset and fuel tracking, and automated-equipment services, as well as various surface rental equipment and workforce accommodation services. The Water Infrastructure segment engages in the recycling, gathering, transferring, and disposal of water through a network of permanent pipeline infrastructure, semi-permanent pipeline infrastructure, water recycling facilities, earthen pits, water sources, and SWDs; provides solids management services; and develops, builds, and operates semi-permanent and permanent infrastructure solutions. The Chemical Technologies segment provides technical solutions, products, and services related to chemical applications in the oil and gas industry. This segment develops, manufactures, and manages logistics; and provides chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, stimulation, cementing, and well completions for pressure pumpers and oil and gas producers, as well as offers production chemical solutions for underperforming wells, corrosion and scale monitoring, chemical inventory management, well failure analysis, and lab services. It primarily serves oil and gas producers. The company was formerly known as Select Energy Services, Inc. and changed its name to Select Water Solutions, Inc. in May 2023. Select Water Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Solaris Energy Infrastructure

Solaris Energy Infrastructure, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the manufacture of patented mobile proppant management systems that unload, store, and deliver proppant to oil and natural gas well sites. Its products include Mobile Proppant and Mobile Chemical Management Systems, and Inventory Management Software. The firm’s services include field, last mile management, and transloading services. The company was founded by William A. Zartler in 2014 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.