Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN) Raises Dividend to $0.43 Per Share

Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 23rd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a dividend of 0.426 per share on Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a yield of ∞. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. This is a boost from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39.

Waste Connections Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 100.60, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of C$63.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.72. Waste Connections has a 52-week low of C$174.74 and a 52-week high of C$253.95. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$247.98 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$239.18.

Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported C$1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$1.61 by C$0.09. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 11.14% and a net margin of 10.23%. The firm had revenue of C$3.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$3.03 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Waste Connections will post 9.9808652 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on WCN shares. Scotiabank upgraded Waste Connections to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. ATB Capital boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from C$240.00 to C$255.00 in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Eight Capital set a C$270.00 price objective on shares of Waste Connections and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$208.42.

Insider Activity at Waste Connections

In other Waste Connections news, Senior Officer Susan Rhea Netherton sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of C$179.13, for a total value of C$358,262.60. In other news, Senior Officer Mary Anne Whitney sold 16,300 shares of Waste Connections stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$178.05, for a total transaction of C$2,902,254.12. Also, Senior Officer Susan Rhea Netherton sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of C$179.13, for a total value of C$358,262.60. Insiders have sold a total of 30,671 shares of company stock worth $6,073,683 over the last three months. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.