Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) Short Interest Update

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,850,000 shares, an increase of 23.3% from the February 28th total of 1,500,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 352,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.3 days. Approximately 3.1% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CWST has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Casella Waste Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $113.00 in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $127.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Casella Waste Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $117.75.

Casella Waste Systems Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of CWST stock opened at $111.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $7.07 billion, a PE ratio of 484.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.05. Casella Waste Systems has a 1 year low of $86.41 and a 1 year high of $116.31. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $109.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $107.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 2.00 and a quick ratio of 2.48.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The industrial products company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.25. Casella Waste Systems had a return on equity of 4.15% and a net margin of 0.87%. Research analysts predict that Casella Waste Systems will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Casella Waste Systems

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CWST. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 802 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $676,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,516 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $372,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 124.4% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 276 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 12,267 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,298,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

Casella Waste Systems Company Profile

Casella Waste Systems, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers.