Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Acquires 17,480 Shares of Waste Connections, Inc. $WCN

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 612,724 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,480 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.24% of Waste Connections worth $114,235,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WCN. MWA Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 1.2% in the first quarter. MWA Asset Management now owns 4,783 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. MAI Capital Management lifted its stake in Waste Connections by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,116 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Waste Connections by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,289 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $447,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC boosted its position in Waste Connections by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 1,897 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LWM Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. LWM Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $591,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 86.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Waste Connections

In other news, Director Edward E. Guillet sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $174.44, for a total transaction of $1,569,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 14,883 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,596,190.52. This represents a 37.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on WCN shares. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $199.00 to $196.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. UBS Group set a $195.00 target price on shares of Waste Connections and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Waste Connections in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $200.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Waste Connections from $221.00 to $218.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $213.00 price target on shares of Waste Connections and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.32.

Waste Connections Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:WCN opened at $176.95 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $172.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $181.24. The company has a market capitalization of $45.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Waste Connections, Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.27 and a 1 year high of $201.66.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 21st. The business services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.38 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.46 billion. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 16.07% and a net margin of 6.65%.Waste Connections’s quarterly revenue was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. Waste Connections has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 5th were given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 5th. This is a boost from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio is presently 58.33%.

Waste Connections Profile

Waste Connections, Inc provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals.