Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) Holdings Cut by West Family Investments Inc.

West Family Investments Inc. lowered its holdings in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,018 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 94 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of WCN. Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 20.5% in the third quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 11,294,922 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,516,908,000 after purchasing an additional 1,920,302 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 57.7% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,500,718 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $522,988,000 after purchasing an additional 1,281,418 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 35.0% in the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 2,436,123 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $319,336,000 after purchasing an additional 631,724 shares during the period. Findlay Park Partners LLP increased its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 35.8% in the third quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP now owns 2,057,127 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $276,272,000 after purchasing an additional 542,586 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 32.8% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,840,307 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $261,054,000 after purchasing an additional 454,508 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented 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. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $182.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Waste Connections from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $170.00 to $181.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $179.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Waste Connections

In other Waste Connections news, Director Andrea E. Bertone sold 902 shares of Waste Connections stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.17, for a total transaction of $152,591.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Waste Connections Trading Up 0.5 %

Waste Connections stock traded up $0.85 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $162.91. The stock had a trading volume of 336,325 shares, compared to its average volume of 914,012. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $167.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $152.72. Waste Connections, Inc. has a twelve month low of $126.12 and a twelve month high of $173.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market cap of $42.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.62, a PEG ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.67.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.02 by $0.02. Waste Connections had a net margin of 9.70% and a return on equity of 14.66%. The firm had revenue of $2.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.89 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 4.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.285 per share. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.01%.

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.