Avior Wealth Management LLC Purchases 264 Shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 19.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,644 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 264 shares during the quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $294,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WM. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Waste Management by 110,208.2% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,778,550 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $749,659,000 after purchasing an additional 4,774,218 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Waste Management during the 4th quarter valued at about $658,370,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Waste Management by 153.4% during the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,694,489 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $640,698,000 after acquiring an additional 2,236,280 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Waste Management by 30.4% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 7,370,481 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,156,281,000 after acquiring an additional 1,718,449 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Imprint Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Waste Management by 17,627.7% during the 2nd quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC now owns 1,401,200 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $140,120,000 after acquiring an additional 1,393,296 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Waste Management from $188.00 to $212.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada assumed coverage on Waste Management in a research report on Monday, April 8th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $211.00 price target for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Waste Management from $190.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com raised Waste Management from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut Waste Management from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $190.00 to $205.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.85.

Insider Activity at Waste Management

In related news, VP Donald J. Smith sold 329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.56, for a total transaction of $65,326.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,096,448.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, VP Donald J. Smith sold 329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.56, for a total transaction of $65,326.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 5,522 shares in the company, valued at $1,096,448.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Charles C. Boettcher sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.50, for a total value of $523,750.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 29,677 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,217,331.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,007 shares of company stock worth $3,696,520 over the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Waste Management Price Performance

Shares of Waste Management stock opened at $207.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $207.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $184.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 0.72. Waste Management, Inc. has a one year low of $149.71 and a one year high of $214.54.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 12th. The business services provider reported $1.74 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $5.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.19 billion. Waste Management had a return on equity of 36.51% and a net margin of 11.28%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.30 EPS. Analysts forecast that Waste Management, Inc. will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Waste Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Waste Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.00%.

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.