Sivia Capital Partners LLC Takes $204,000 Position in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 958 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,963,527 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,061,521,000 after acquiring an additional 46,084 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 5,213,330 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $794,174,000 after acquiring an additional 66,816 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 4,799,687 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $859,624,000 after acquiring an additional 16,213 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Waste Management during the 4th quarter valued at $784,486,000. Finally, Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 40.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,923,403 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $523,581,000 after acquiring an additional 844,298 shares in the last quarter. 80.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on WM. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $219.00 to $229.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $214.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $207.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Waste Management in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $241.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $230.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.61.

Insider Transactions at Waste Management

In other news, VP Michael J. Watson sold 4,208 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.28, for a total transaction of $859,610.24. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 45,644 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,324,156.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Waste Management Price Performance

Shares of Waste Management stock traded up $0.26 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $209.73. The stock had a trading volume of 307,286 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,719,179. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.23, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market cap of $84.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.32, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.74. The business has a fifty day moving average of $208.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $200.47. Waste Management, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.71 and a fifty-two week high of $214.54.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $5.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.22 billion. Waste Management had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 11.98%. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.31 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.10%.

Waste Management Profile

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.