Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported C$1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of C$1.38 by C$0.02, reports. Waste Connections had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 10.30%. The firm had revenue of C$2.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.78 billion.

Waste Connections Price Performance

WCN stock opened at C$223.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of C$57.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.47, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.66. Waste Connections has a twelve month low of C$174.74 and a twelve month high of C$234.79. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$228.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$206.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 91.42.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be issued a $0.385 dividend. This is an increase from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.21%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WCN. Atb Cap Markets lowered shares of Waste Connections from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Waste Connections from C$169.00 to C$182.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, ATB Capital increased their price target on shares of Waste Connections from C$235.00 to C$240.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Waste Connections currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$193.10.

Insider Activity

In related news, Senior Officer James M. Little sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$168.64, for a total transaction of C$1,011,840.00. In other Waste Connections news, Director Andrea Elisabeth Bertone sold 902 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of C$169.17, for a total value of C$152,589.90. Also, Senior Officer James M. Little sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$168.64, for a total value of C$1,011,840.00. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 18,026 shares of company stock valued at $3,043,157. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Waste Connections Company Profile

Waste Connections, Inc provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals.