Douglas Casella Sells 1,343 Shares of Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) Stock

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) Director Douglas Casella sold 1,343 shares of Casella Waste Systems stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.12, for a total transaction of $122,374.16. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 90,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,213,647.92. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Down 0.3%

NASDAQ:CWST traded down $0.31 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $90.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 241,944 shares, compared to its average volume of 750,045. Casella Waste Systems, Inc. has a 12 month low of $74.05 and a 12 month high of $107.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $91.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $90.01. The company has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 1,008.11 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 0.99.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The industrial products company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $543.75 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $526.43 million. Casella Waste Systems had a return on equity of 5.32% and a net margin of 0.29%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Casella Waste Systems, Inc. will post 1.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CWST. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,574,893 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $643,945,000 after buying an additional 581,310 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,765,442 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $368,787,000 after acquiring an additional 56,914 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,804,475 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $222,507,000 after acquiring an additional 27,148 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Casella Waste Systems by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,703,855 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $264,816,000 after acquiring an additional 300,102 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in Casella Waste Systems by 23.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,488,034 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $243,678,000 after acquiring an additional 477,216 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CWST has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Zacks Research raised shares of Casella Waste Systems from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Casella Waste Systems from $130.00 to $122.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.75.

Casella Waste Systems Company Profile

Casella Waste Systems, Inc is a regional resource management company headquartered in Rutland, Vermont. Established in 1975, the company has grown from a single-truck operation into a multi-state provider of integrated waste management solutions. Casella offers a comprehensive range of services, including residential, commercial and industrial waste collection, transfer station operations, landfill disposal, recycling processing and organics management.

Through a network of solid waste transfer stations, recycling facilities and landfills, Casella serves communities primarily across the northeastern United States and parts of the mid-Atlantic region.