Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) Earns Outperform Rating from William Blair

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at William Blair in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,RTT News reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $130.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $122.67.

Casella Waste Systems Price Performance

CWST stock opened at $109.84 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $115.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $112.34. Casella Waste Systems has a 12-month low of $91.01 and a 12-month high of $121.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 499.30, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $417.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $403.64 million. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 0.79% and a return on equity of 4.69%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Casella Waste Systems will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Edmond Coletta sold 5,562 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.18, for a total value of $662,879.16. Following the transaction, the president owned 150,093 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,888,083.74. This represents a 3.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.81% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CWST. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,577,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $272,705,000 after buying an additional 838,086 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 157.6% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 740,000 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $82,517,000 after purchasing an additional 452,776 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,785,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 18.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,165,010 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $241,420,000 after purchasing an additional 334,790 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,326,000. Institutional investors own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

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.