StockNews.com Upgrades Waste Management (NYSE:WM) to “Strong-Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Waste Management (NYSE:WM) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on WM. William Blair started coverage on Waste Management in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Waste Management from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Waste Management from $214.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Waste Management from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Waste Management in a report on Friday, October 4th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $220.00 target price for the company. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Waste Management has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $226.11.

Waste Management Price Performance

Shares of WM opened at $224.12 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $89.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.27, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $210.21 and a 200-day moving average of $209.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. Waste Management has a 52 week low of $168.73 and a 52 week high of $226.36.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.07. Waste Management had a return on equity of 39.88% and a net margin of 12.35%. The company had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.51 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. Waste Management’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Waste Management will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio is 45.87%.

Insider Activity

In other Waste Management news, Director Maryrose Sylvester sold 310 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $66,795.70. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,875 shares in the company, valued at $834,946.25. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Trium Capital LLP grew its holdings in Waste Management by 33.6% during the 3rd quarter. Trium Capital LLP now owns 12,031 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,498,000 after acquiring an additional 3,029 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Waste Management by 77.4% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 12,298 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,553,000 after purchasing an additional 5,367 shares in the last quarter. Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 18.6% during the first quarter. Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC now owns 20,099 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,284,000 after acquiring an additional 3,145 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in shares of Waste Management by 417.3% in the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 3,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $720,000 after purchasing an additional 2,800 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its stake in Waste Management by 67.2% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,765,594 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $366,537,000 after acquiring an additional 709,678 shares in the last quarter. 80.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.