Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.32

Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a dividend of 0.315 per share by the business services provider on Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. This is a boost from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29.

Waste Connections has raised its dividend by an average of 11.4% per year over the last three years. Waste Connections has a dividend payout ratio of 20.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Waste Connections to earn $5.46 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.9%.

Waste Connections Stock Down 0.5 %

WCN opened at $180.36 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97. Waste Connections has a 1-year low of $126.12 and a 1-year high of $187.54. The company has a market capitalization of $46.54 billion, a PE ratio of 58.56, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $182.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.05.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The business services provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.17 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.22 billion. Waste Connections had a net margin of 10.23% and a return on equity of 15.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Waste Connections will post 4.84 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WCN. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $196.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $175.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Eight Capital raised shares of Waste Connections to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $191.00 to $194.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $194.19.

Insider Transactions at Waste Connections

In other news, SVP Robert Nielsen III sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.15, for a total value of $180,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,321 shares in the company, valued at approximately $778,428.15. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Mary Anne Whitney sold 16,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.05, for a total value of $2,902,215.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 48,899 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,706,466.95. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Robert Nielsen III sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.15, for a total transaction of $180,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,321 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $778,428.15. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 21,600 shares of company stock worth $3,842,550. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.