Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) Receives $208.21 Average Target Price from Analysts

Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have issued a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $208.21.

WCN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Waste Connections to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Truist Financial set a $220.00 price objective on Waste Connections in a research note on Friday, April 25th. William Blair initiated coverage on Waste Connections in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Waste Connections from $192.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Waste Connections from $225.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th.

Waste Connections Price Performance

Shares of NYSE WCN opened at $186.04 on Friday. Waste Connections has a twelve month low of $160.34 and a twelve month high of $201.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $48.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.66. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $186.14.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.06. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 6.92%. The business had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.04 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Waste Connections will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Waste Connections Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a dividend of $0.315 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.85%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WCN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Waste Connections during the 4th quarter worth $687,935,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Waste Connections in the first quarter valued at $623,155,000. FIL Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 46.2% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 7,177,724 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,231,368,000 after buying an additional 2,269,652 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Waste Connections in the fourth quarter valued at $240,422,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 3.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 30,247,244 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,901,049,000 after buying an additional 954,242 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

About Waste Connections

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.