Great Lakes Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Waste Management, Inc. $WM

Great Lakes Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 27.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,448 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 5,927 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $3,411,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Waste Management by 0.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,662,207 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,617,866,000 after buying an additional 292,868 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,647,146 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,972,856,000 after acquiring an additional 126,329 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Waste Management by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,390,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,232,131,000 after acquiring an additional 74,528 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Waste Management in the second quarter worth $1,064,206,000. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in Waste Management by 8.6% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 3,596,281 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $804,809,000 after purchasing an additional 284,733 shares in the last quarter. 80.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Rafael Carrasco sold 1,380 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $217.06, for a total transaction of $299,542.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 15,540 shares in the company, valued at $3,373,112.40. The trade was a 8.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WM has been the topic of several recent research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Waste Management from $255.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on Waste Management from $223.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Waste Management from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. DZ Bank started coverage on shares of Waste Management in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $250.00 price target for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Waste Management from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $253.55.

More Waste Management News

Here are the key news stories impacting Waste Management this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple broker upgrades/price-target raises signal analyst confidence and create upside expectations — notable lifts include TD Cowen raising its target to $270 (Buy), Oppenheimer to $264 (Outperform), Wells Fargo to $250 (Overweight), Stifel to $252 (Buy) and RBC to $235 (Sector Perform). These raises help underpin demand and longer-term upside.
• Positive Sentiment: MarketBeat piece argues WM is in a trend-following rally, supported by widening margins, accelerating free cash flow and a resumed buyback plan — factors that can sustain share-price appreciation. Waste Management’s “Boring” Business Is Powering a Quiet Rally
• Positive Sentiment: Dividend and buyback tailwinds: WM raised its dividend and signaled intent to resume repurchases (guidance assumes ~$2B in buybacks), improving shareholder-return prospects and offsetting share-based dilution over time. (Referenced in MarketBeat coverage.)
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry report notes long-term demand in specialized waste markets (solid control drilling waste mgmt. forecast to 2035) — a potential structural tailwind but only indirectly tied to WM’s near-term earnings. Solid Control Drilling Waste Management Market Size
• Neutral Sentiment: Full Q4 earnings call transcript is available for investors wanting detail on segment performance and management commentary; useful for parsing how sustainable margin and cash-flow commentary is. Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript
• Negative Sentiment: Q4 results missed expectations on both EPS ($1.93 vs. ~$1.95 est.) and revenue (came up short of estimates). The miss pressured the stock as it undercut near-term growth/beat expectations that had supported the rally. Waste Management Stock Falls After Disappointing Q4 Results
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance was slightly below Street expectations (revenue/growth assumptions modest), leaving room for disappointment if execution slips — this is the primary catalyst for short-term downside risk.

Waste Management Price Performance

Shares of WM opened at $222.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $89.51 billion, a PE ratio of 33.16, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $219.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $219.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.89. Waste Management, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $194.11 and a fifty-two week high of $242.58.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 28th. The business services provider reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.95 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $6.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.39 billion. Waste Management had a return on equity of 32.45% and a net margin of 10.74%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.70 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th were paid a $0.825 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 5th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.25%.

Waste Management Profile

Waste Management, Inc (NYSE: WM) is a leading provider of integrated waste management and environmental services in North America. The company offers end-to-end solutions that span collection, transfer, disposal and recycling, along with landfill operations and related infrastructure. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Waste Management serves a broad customer base that includes residential, commercial, industrial and municipal clients.

Core services include curbside and commercial waste collection, roll-off and temporary container services, materials recovery and recycling, and engineered landfill disposal.