Earnest Partners LLC Raises Stock Position in Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST)

Earnest Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) by 3.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,680,358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 51,516 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC owned about 2.90% of Casella Waste Systems worth $166,725,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in Casella Waste Systems during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 232.0% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 332 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the period. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 76.4% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 321 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. 99.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CWST has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $117.00 price target (up from $110.00) on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Raymond James upped their price objective on Casella Waste Systems from $121.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Casella Waste Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.20.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Performance

CWST opened at $100.01 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $104.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $99.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The firm has a market cap of $5.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 322.61, a PEG ratio of 7.89 and a beta of 0.99. Casella Waste Systems, Inc. has a 1-year low of $72.97 and a 1-year high of $109.08.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $377.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $373.87 million. Casella Waste Systems had a return on equity of 3.83% and a net margin of 1.35%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 30.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.36 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Casella Waste Systems, Inc. will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Casella Waste Systems

Casella Waste Systems, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers.