Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WM – Get Rating) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,740,000 shares, a decline of 21.4% from the May 15th total of 4,760,000 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the company shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,750,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.1 days.
Waste Management stock opened at $ 145.62 on Wednesday. Waste Management has a fifty-two week low of $ 136.97 and a fifty-two week high of $ 170.18. The stock has a market cap of $ 60.46 billion, a PE ratio of 32.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.80. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $ 158.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $ 156.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.80.
Waste Management (NYSE: WM – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 26th. The business services provider reported $ 1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $ 1.12 by $ 0.17. The business had revenue of $ 4.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $ 4.45 billion. Waste Management had a net margin of 10.32% and a return on equity of 29.67%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $ 1.06 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Waste Management will post 5.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 3rd will be paid a $ 0.65 dividend. This represents a $ 2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 2nd. Waste Management’s payout ratio is 57.27%.
In other news, CEO James C. Fish, Jr. sold 28,976 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction on Monday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $ 158.05, for a total transaction of $ 4,579,656.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Leslie K. Nagy sold 2,668 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $ 169.72, for a total transaction of $ 452,812.96. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,880 shares of the company stock, valued at $ 828,233.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 88,961 shares of company stock worth $ 14,651,682. 0.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Waste Management by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,313,607 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $ 5,597,207,000 after acquiring an additional 332,941 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Waste Management by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 30,615,210 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $ 4,852,507,000 after acquiring an additional 673,451 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in Waste Management by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 6,614,129 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $ 987,886,000 after acquiring an additional 323,707 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Waste Management by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,612,143 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $ 1,100,331,000 after acquiring an additional 143,649 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Waste Management by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,533,636 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $ 889,809,000 after acquiring an additional 221,439 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.37% of the company stock.
Several equities research analysts have weighed in on WM shares. BMO Capital Markets downgraded shares of Waste Management from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $ 174.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, April 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $ 157.00 to $ 167.00 in a report on Thursday, April 28th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $ 167.00 to $ 170.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Waste Management from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Waste Management in a report on Tuesday, March 1st. They set a “neutral” rating and a $ 153.00 price objective for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $ 161.57.
About Waste Management: (Get Rating)
Waste Management, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides waste management environmental services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in North America. 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, develops, and operates landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States, as well as owns and operates transfer stations.
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