LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI Buys 168 Shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI lifted its stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,758 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $6,207,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Waste Management by 94,414.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,591,584 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $538,013,000 after buying an additional 2,588,842 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in Waste Management by 20,402.6% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 868,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $185,196,000 after acquiring an additional 863,846 shares during the period. Swedbank AB boosted its position in Waste Management by 67.2% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,765,594 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $366,537,000 after purchasing an additional 709,678 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Waste Management by 11.3% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,120,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,063,072,000 after purchasing an additional 520,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Waste Management by 32.1% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,801,842 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $374,062,000 after purchasing an additional 437,613 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WM. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Scotiabank started coverage on Waste Management in a report on Friday, October 4th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $220.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on Waste Management from $220.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Waste Management from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $230.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Maryrose Sylvester sold 310 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total value of $66,795.70. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,875 shares in the company, valued at approximately $834,946.25. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Waste Management Trading Up 0.5 %

WM stock traded up $1.01 during trading on Friday, reaching $207.59. The company had a trading volume of 1,064,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,551,850. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Waste Management, Inc. has a 52 week low of $177.83 and a 52 week high of $230.39. The business has a 50 day moving average of $214.90 and a 200 day moving average of $211.38. The company has a market cap of $83.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.74, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.77.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released 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. The company had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.51 billion. Waste Management had a return on equity of 39.88% and a net margin of 12.35%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.63 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.87%.

About Waste Management

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.