Nykredit A S Buys Shares of 150,921 Waste Management, Inc. $WM

Nykredit A S purchased a new position in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 150,921 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $33,637,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Waste Management by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 30,733,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,849,981,000 after buying an additional 535,079 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 17,390,748 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,820,921,000 after acquiring an additional 281,456 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Waste Management by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,993,006 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,972,371,000 after purchasing an additional 117,476 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Waste Management in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,022,916,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Waste Management by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,954,519 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $873,276,000 after purchasing an additional 11,688 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Waste Management from $240.00 to $244.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $264.00 to $263.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on Waste Management from $265.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Waste Management from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Waste Management from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $258.89.

Waste Management Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of WM stock opened at $221.66 on Friday. Waste Management, Inc. has a twelve month low of $194.11 and a twelve month high of $248.13. The stock has a market cap of $88.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $228.62 and a 200 day moving average of $227.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The business services provider reported $2.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $6.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.71 billion. Waste Management had a return on equity of 31.68% and a net margin of 11.11%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.92 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Waste Management, Inc. will post 8.13 EPS for the current year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.945 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 11th. This represents a $3.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio is 53.54%.

Waste Management Profile

Waste Management, Inc (NYSE: WM) is a leading provider of integrated waste management and environmental services in North America. The company offers end-to-end solutions that span collection, transfer, disposal and recycling, along with landfill operations and related infrastructure. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Waste Management serves a broad customer base that includes residential, commercial, industrial and municipal clients.

Core services include curbside and commercial waste collection, roll-off and temporary container services, materials recovery and recycling, and engineered landfill disposal.