Waste Management, Inc. $WM Shares Sold by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 1.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,300 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $4,416,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its stake in Waste Management by 51.1% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,861 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,384,000 after buying an additional 2,320 shares during the last quarter. Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC grew its stake in Waste Management by 30.4% during the 2nd quarter. Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC now owns 9,430 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $2,158,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in Waste Management by 82.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 22,670 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,248,000 after buying an additional 10,272 shares during the last quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON increased its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 25.1% during the first quarter. BROOKFIELD Corp ON now owns 20,135 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,661,000 after purchasing an additional 4,043 shares during the period. Finally, Czech National Bank increased its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 6.7% during the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 89,510 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $20,482,000 after purchasing an additional 5,620 shares during the period. 80.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on WM. Citigroup lowered their price target on Waste Management from $275.00 to $268.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on Waste Management in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $252.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Waste Management in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $229.00 price target on shares of Waste Management in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on Waste Management from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $254.37.

Waste Management Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE WM opened at $220.00 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.64, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $223.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $228.09. Waste Management, Inc. has a 52-week low of $199.69 and a 52-week high of $242.58.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its earnings results on Monday, July 28th. The business services provider reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.03. Waste Management had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 11.36%.The business had revenue of $6.43 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.82 earnings per share. Waste Management’s revenue was up 19.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Waste Management has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 12th were issued a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 12th. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.96%.

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.