Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) Shares Bought by Strategic Blueprint LLC

Strategic Blueprint LLC raised its position in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 6.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 5,968 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $1,204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of WM. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Waste Management by 94,414.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,591,584 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $538,013,000 after buying an additional 2,588,842 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 67.2% in the 3rd 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 raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 11.3% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,801,842 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $374,062,000 after purchasing an additional 437,613 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 138.0% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 718,546 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $149,168,000 after purchasing an additional 416,579 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Waste Management from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. CIBC raised their target price on Waste Management from $228.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Waste Management from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 4th. William Blair assumed coverage on Waste Management in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Waste Management from $213.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Waste Management presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $231.39.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Maryrose Sylvester sold 310 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $66,795.70. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,875 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $834,946.25. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Waste Management Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of Waste Management stock opened at $209.93 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. The firm has a market cap of $84.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $212.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $211.29. Waste Management, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $184.72 and a fifty-two week high of $230.39.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.51 billion. Waste Management had a return on equity of 39.88% and a net margin of 12.35%. The company’s revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.87%.

Waste Management Profile

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.