Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) Receives $109.75 Average Target Price from Analysts

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $109.75.

CWST has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Casella Waste Systems from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Zacks Research upgraded Casella Waste Systems from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Casella Waste Systems from $130.00 to $122.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Casella Waste Systems from $102.00 to $104.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Casella Waste Systems news, Director Michael Burke sold 1,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.26, for a total value of $104,786.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,641 shares in the company, valued at $1,299,441.66. This represents a 7.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Douglas Casella sold 15,157 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $91.05, for a total value of $1,380,044.85. Following the sale, the director directly owned 91,484 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,329,618.20. This represents a 14.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 18,700 shares of company stock valued at $1,709,494 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.78% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Casella Waste Systems

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CWST. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Casella Waste Systems in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Comprehensive Financial Planning Inc. PA bought a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 41.0% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 337 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, SHP Wealth Management purchased a new position in Casella Waste Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CWST opened at $89.07 on Wednesday. Casella Waste Systems has a 1 year low of $74.05 and a 1 year high of $107.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm has a market cap of $5.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 989.78 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $91.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $88.43.

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

Casella Waste Systems Company Profile

Casella Waste Systems, Inc is a regional solid waste services company headquartered in Rutland, Vermont. Founded in 1975, the company provides waste collection, transfer, disposal, recycling and resource-recovery services to residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers.

Casella’s services include curbside and commercial waste collection, construction and demolition debris management, transfer station operations, recycling of paper, cardboard, plastics and other materials, and organics recycling.