Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) Plans $0.83 Quarterly Dividend

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, May 12th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.825 per share by the business services provider on Friday, June 20th. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%.

Waste Management has raised its dividend by an average of 9.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 22 consecutive years. Waste Management has a payout ratio of 38.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Waste Management to earn $8.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.7%.

Waste Management Stock Performance

Shares of WM traded down $3.88 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $221.69. 177,247 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,648,534. Waste Management has a 1-year low of $196.59 and a 1-year high of $239.32. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $228.44 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $221.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.21 billion, a PE ratio of 32.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.67.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.08. Waste Management had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 37.93%. The business had revenue of $6.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.75 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Waste Management will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Waste Management

In related news, CFO Devina A. Rankin sold 4,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.11, for a total value of $941,181.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 62,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,288,582.29. The trade was a 6.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO James C. Fish, Jr. sold 44,405 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.43, for a total value of $10,143,434.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 211,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,212,664.23. This trade represents a 17.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 79,522 shares of company stock valued at $18,084,124. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Waste Management stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 51.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,861 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,320 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $1,384,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 80.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WM. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Waste Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Waste Management from $255.00 to $238.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. HSBC upgraded shares of Waste Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $210.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Waste Management from $227.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Waste Management presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $243.29.

Waste Management Company 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.