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

Shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) have earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $111.25.

CWST has been the topic of a number of research reports. Raymond James raised 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. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $117.00 price objective (up from $110.00) on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, William Blair began coverage on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Casella Waste Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 983,826 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $84,078,000 after acquiring an additional 148,913 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,478,870 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $468,224,000 after purchasing an additional 92,085 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 38.1% in the first quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 613 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 10.4% in the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 40,209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,975,000 after purchasing an additional 3,801 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

Casella Waste Systems Price Performance

CWST stock opened at $104.07 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.12. The stock has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a PE ratio of 335.71, a P/E/G ratio of 7.90 and a beta of 0.99. Casella Waste Systems has a one year low of $72.97 and a one year high of $109.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.51.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.06). Casella Waste Systems had a return on equity of 3.83% and a net margin of 1.35%. The company had revenue of $377.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $373.87 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 30.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Casella Waste Systems will post 0.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Casella Waste Systems Company Profile

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.