Short Interest in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) Drops By 14.9%

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,760,000 shares, a decline of 14.9% from the March 31st total of 4,420,000 shares. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,710,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Donald J. Smith sold 329 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.56, for a total transaction of $65,326.24. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,096,448.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, EVP Charles C. Boettcher sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.50, for a total transaction of $523,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 29,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,217,331.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Donald J. Smith sold 329 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.56, for a total transaction of $65,326.24. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 5,522 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,096,448.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,007 shares of company stock valued at $3,696,520 over the last ninety days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Waste Management

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. McAdam LLC grew its stake in shares of Waste Management by 4.0% in the first quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 1,317 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 2,053 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Quent Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Waste Management by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 810 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $145,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Drake & Associates LLC increased its position in Waste Management by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Drake & Associates LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV lifted its holdings in Waste Management by 0.6% in the first quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 9,495 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,024,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on WM. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Waste Management from $207.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Waste Management from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Waste Management from $230.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Waste Management from $211.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $221.00 to $228.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Waste Management has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $214.21.

Waste Management Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE WM opened at $210.10 on Monday. Waste Management has a one year low of $149.71 and a one year high of $214.54. The business’s fifty day moving average is $208.54 and its 200-day moving average is $187.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.39, a PEG ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 0.72.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.23. Waste Management had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 11.98%. The business had revenue of $5.16 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.31 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Waste Management will post 7.09 EPS for the current year.

Waste Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is a boost from Waste Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. Waste Management’s payout ratio is presently 49.10%.

About Waste Management

Waste Management, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of environmental solutions to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services, including picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from where it was generated to a transfer station, material recovery facility (MRF), or disposal site; and owns and operates transfer stations, as well as owns, develops, and operates landfill facilities that produce landfill gas used as renewable natural gas for generating electricity.