Seneca House Advisors Decreases Position in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Seneca House Advisors cut its position in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 3.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,042 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 122 shares during the period. Seneca House Advisors’ holdings in Waste Management were worth $704,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Waste Management by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,300,278 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,526,823,000 after buying an additional 538,567 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Waste Management by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,210,371 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,654,173,000 after buying an additional 64,260 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Waste Management by 22.5% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 6,272,009 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,265,629,000 after buying an additional 1,151,237 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Waste Management in the 4th quarter worth $1,009,726,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Waste Management by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,076,447 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $822,588,000 after buying an additional 224,279 shares during the period. 80.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on WM. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $227.00 to $229.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $235.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. HSBC upgraded shares of Waste Management from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $210.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Waste Management from $260.00 to $271.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Waste Management currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $247.06.

Waste Management Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE WM opened at $236.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $231.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $223.44. The company has a market capitalization of $95.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.66. Waste Management, Inc. has a 12 month low of $196.59 and a 12 month high of $242.58.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.08. Waste Management had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 37.93%. The company had revenue of $6.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.75 EPS. Waste Management’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $0.825 dividend. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.77%.

Insider Activity at Waste Management

In other news, SVP Rafael Carrasco sold 674 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.81, for a total transaction of $159,609.94. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,542 shares in the company, valued at $3,917,311.02. The trade was a 3.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Devina A. Rankin sold 57,888 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.36, for a total transaction of $13,740,295.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 83,934 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,922,574.24. The trade was a 40.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

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.