DF Dent & Co. Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST)

DF Dent & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) by 22.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 237,541 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 44,278 shares during the quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Casella Waste Systems were worth $25,134,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CWST. Zimmer Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the 3rd quarter worth about $50,854,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 50.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,454,453 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $144,704,000 after purchasing an additional 487,661 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Casella Waste Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $43,785,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Casella Waste Systems in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,326,000. Finally, Maven Securities LTD acquired a new stake in Casella Waste Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $19,898,000. 99.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $127.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut Casella Waste Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $117.75.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Up 1.4 %

CWST stock opened at $114.29 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 496.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $109.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $107.12. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $86.41 and a 12 month high of $116.31.

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

About Casella Waste Systems

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.