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

William Blair reissued their outperform rating on shares of Waste Management (NYSE:WM) in a report published on Tuesday morning,RTT News reports.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on WM. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Waste Management from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Waste Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $260.00 to $271.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Melius assumed coverage on shares of Waste Management in a research note on Monday, June 9th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Waste Management currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $252.41.

Waste Management Trading Up 3.4%

NYSE WM opened at $235.65 on Tuesday. Waste Management has a one year low of $199.69 and a one year high of $242.58. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $231.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $227.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.83 billion, a PE ratio of 34.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.64.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The business services provider reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.03. Waste Management had a net margin of 11.36% and a return on equity of 35.31%. The business had revenue of $6.43 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.37 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.82 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 19.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Waste Management will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th were issued a dividend of $0.825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 6th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.96%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Rafael Carrasco sold 674 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.81, for a total transaction of $159,609.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 16,542 shares in the company, valued at $3,917,311.02. The trade was a 3.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Devina A. Rankin sold 57,888 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.36, for a total value of $13,740,295.68. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 83,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,922,574.24. This trade represents a 40.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Westend Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Waste Management by 126.9% in the first quarter. Westend Capital Management LLC now owns 118 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC acquired a new position in shares of Waste Management in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. West Branch Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Waste Management by 69.0% in the first quarter. West Branch Capital LLC now owns 120 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Hurley Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Waste Management in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Finally, Saudi Central Bank acquired a new position in shares of Waste Management in the first quarter valued at $37,000. 80.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.