Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) Hits New 12-Month High – What’s Next?

Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $188.47 and last traded at $187.04, with a volume of 19441 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $187.50.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WCN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James decreased their target price on Waste Connections from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $205.00 price objective (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Waste Connections in a report on Friday, October 25th. Eight Capital raised Waste Connections to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Waste Connections from $198.00 to $196.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Waste Connections from $198.00 to $197.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $195.56.

Waste Connections Trading Up 1.3 %

The business has a 50 day moving average price of $180.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $177.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $48.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.72.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.43% and a net margin of 10.81%. Waste Connections’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.17 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 4.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were given a $0.315 dividend. This is a boost from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.62%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WCN. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its stake in Waste Connections by 94.7% in the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 3,700 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $636,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares in the last quarter. Natixis purchased a new position in Waste Connections in the first quarter valued at about $360,000. CreativeOne Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Waste Connections in the first quarter valued at about $266,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its stake in Waste Connections by 35.3% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 488,686 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $84,094,000 after purchasing an additional 127,522 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Waste Connections in the first quarter valued at about $1,319,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Waste Connections Company Profile

Waste Connections, Inc provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals.