Wulff Hansen & CO. Reduces Stock Position in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Wulff Hansen & CO. reduced its holdings in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 165 shares during the quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO.’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $868,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC grew its holdings in Waste Management by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. ARS Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,577 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $336,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 29.7% during the first quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 214 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Waste Management by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Mayflower Financial Advisors LLC now owns 4,273 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $911,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX boosted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Cypress Asset Management Inc. TX now owns 4,256 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $907,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, GYL Financial Synergies LLC grew its position in shares of Waste Management by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC now owns 1,362 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Waste Management from $240.00 to $235.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Waste Management to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com lowered Waste Management from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Waste Management from $215.00 to $213.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Waste Management in a report on Friday, June 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $215.83.

Waste Management Price Performance

Shares of Waste Management stock opened at $207.13 on Tuesday. Waste Management, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.71 and a 52 week high of $225.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.21. The stock has a market cap of $83.08 billion, a PE ratio of 33.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.74. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $208.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $208.70.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The business services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.82. The business had revenue of $5.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.43 billion. Waste Management had a net margin of 12.13% and a return on equity of 39.52%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.51 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio is 49.10%.

Insider Activity at Waste Management

In other Waste Management news, VP Michael J. Watson sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.00, for a total transaction of $330,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 44,144 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,711,680. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.