Telos Capital Management Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Telos Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,511 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 154 shares during the quarter. Telos Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $4,032,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quent Capital LLC lifted its stake in Waste Management by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 810 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $145,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Drake & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Waste Management by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Drake & Associates LLC now owns 1,652 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the period. Peoples Financial Services CORP. lifted its stake in Waste Management by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Peoples Financial Services CORP. now owns 3,459 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $620,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. lifted its position in Waste Management by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. now owns 2,369 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $424,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Advocates Investment Management lifted its position in Waste Management by 1.7% during the third quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 3,881 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $592,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Waste Management

In other Waste Management news, SVP Tara J. Hemmer sold 1,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.23, for a total transaction of $363,937.86. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 55,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,353,349.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Waste Management news, SVP Tara J. Hemmer sold 1,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.23, for a total transaction of $363,937.86. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 55,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,353,349.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP John J. Morris sold 8,889 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.46, for a total value of $1,844,111.94. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 95,461 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,804,339.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,507 shares of company stock worth $4,157,770 in the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Waste Management Stock Performance

NYSE WM traded up $0.65 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $205.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 631,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,673,058. Waste Management, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.71 and a 12 month high of $214.54. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $206.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $184.27. The company has a market cap of $82.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 12th. The business services provider reported $1.74 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.21. Waste Management had a return on equity of 36.51% and a net margin of 11.28%. The company had revenue of $5.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.19 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Waste Management, Inc. will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This is an increase from Waste Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Waste Management’s payout ratio is currently 53.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WM has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Waste Management from $184.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group lowered Waste Management from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $190.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Waste Management from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Waste Management from $190.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Waste Management from $165.00 to $197.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Waste Management presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.85.

About Waste Management

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.