Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) Earns Outperform Rating from Analysts at William Blair

William Blair initiated coverage on shares of Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) in a research note released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on CWST. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Casella Waste Systems from $121.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a buy rating and set a $117.00 price target (up from $110.00) on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Casella Waste Systems currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $108.20.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CWST opened at $98.95 on Thursday. Casella Waste Systems has a 1-year low of $72.97 and a 1-year high of $109.08. The firm has a market cap of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 319.19, a PEG ratio of 7.89 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.58, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a 50 day moving average of $103.57 and a 200-day moving average of $99.80.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.06). Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 1.35% and a return on equity of 3.83%. The company had revenue of $377.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $373.87 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Casella Waste Systems will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Casella Waste Systems

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CWST. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Casella Waste Systems in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 232.0% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 332 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 232 shares in the last quarter. Opal Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Casella Waste Systems in the second quarter worth $29,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 76.4% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 321 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. purchased a new position in Casella Waste Systems during the first quarter valued at $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

About Casella Waste Systems

Casella Waste Systems, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers.