Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $114.00.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CWST. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $114.00 to $107.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Raymond James increased their price objective on Casella Waste Systems from $121.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. William Blair began coverage on Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Casella Waste Systems from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Paul Ligon sold 1,730 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.81, for a total value of $184,781.30. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 21,085 shares in the company, valued at $2,252,088.85. This represents a 7.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 4.24% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Casella Waste Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 64.5% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 528 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 6.4% during the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 2,110 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its position in Casella Waste Systems by 12.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 2,743 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $272,000 after buying an additional 311 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,932 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the period. Finally, OneAscent Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $301,000. 99.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Performance

Shares of CWST stock opened at $104.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 868.33, a PEG ratio of 6.53 and a beta of 1.02. Casella Waste Systems has a 52-week low of $80.04 and a 52-week high of $114.88. The company has a quick ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 2.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company’s 50 day moving average is $107.24 and its 200 day moving average is $104.22.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $411.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $412.59 million. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 0.46% and a return on equity of 3.04%. The company’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Casella Waste Systems will post 0.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.