Waste Management’s (WM) Outperform Rating Reiterated at William Blair

William Blair reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Waste Management (NYSE:WM) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday,RTT News reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. CIBC raised their price objective on Waste Management from $227.00 to $247.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. HSBC raised Waste Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $210.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Waste Management from $227.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Waste Management from $242.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $243.29.

Waste Management Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of WM stock opened at $233.60 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $228.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $220.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $93.98 billion, a PE ratio of 34.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Waste Management has a 1-year low of $196.59 and a 1-year high of $239.32.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.08. Waste Management had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 37.93%. The business had revenue of $6.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.75 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Waste Management will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.825 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Waste Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.41%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Waste Management news, CFO Devina A. Rankin sold 5,826 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.12, for a total transaction of $1,294,071.12. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,442 shares in the company, valued at $15,424,457.04. This represents a 7.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Tara J. Hemmer sold 4,576 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.12, for a total value of $1,016,421.12. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 58,765 shares in the company, valued at $13,052,881.80. This represents a 7.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 93,924 shares of company stock valued at $21,298,176. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Waste Management

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Waste Management during the fourth quarter worth about $1,009,726,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 26,095.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,909,370 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $442,038,000 after buying an additional 1,902,081 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Waste Management during the 4th quarter worth approximately $340,611,000. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Waste Management by 250.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 1,658,733 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $334,716,000 after acquiring an additional 1,184,905 shares during the period. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Waste Management by 22.5% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 6,272,009 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,265,629,000 after purchasing an additional 1,151,237 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Waste Management Company Profile

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.