Cumberland Partners Ltd Boosts Stock Position in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Cumberland Partners Ltd increased its stake in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 25,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,600 shares during the quarter. Cumberland Partners Ltd’s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $4,606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Waste Connections by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,498,983 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,902,110,000 after purchasing an additional 88,137 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in Waste Connections by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 8,103,895 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,423,373,000 after purchasing an additional 178,870 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in Waste Connections by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,332,002 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $417,385,000 after purchasing an additional 142,751 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Waste Connections by 307.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,927,155 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $344,615,000 after purchasing an additional 1,453,733 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Waste Connections by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,690,733 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $296,510,000 after purchasing an additional 71,681 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on WCN shares. Eight Capital upgraded Waste Connections to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Citigroup raised their price target on Waste Connections from $190.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $205.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Waste Connections in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Waste Connections from $199.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on Waste Connections from $191.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $195.56.

Waste Connections Price Performance

NYSE:WCN traded up $1.39 on Tuesday, reaching $186.75. 56,084 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 882,433. The firm has a market cap of $48.19 billion, a PE ratio of 50.92, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.72. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $180.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $176.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Waste Connections, Inc. has a 12 month low of $129.31 and a 12 month high of $187.54.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.43% and a net margin of 10.81%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 4.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th will be given a dividend of $0.315 per share. This is a positive change from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.62%.

Waste Connections 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.