Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Buys New Position in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 15,673 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,601,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Manchester Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Waste Connections during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Waste Connections during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Sierra Ocean LLC purchased a new stake in Waste Connections during the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Waste Connections during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Continuum Advisory LLC grew its stake in Waste Connections by 58.0% during the 3rd quarter. Continuum Advisory LLC now owns 226 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. 86.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WCN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Waste Connections from $214.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. CIBC dropped their price target on Waste Connections from $215.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Waste Connections from $192.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Waste Connections from $225.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Waste Connections in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.00.

Waste Connections Stock Performance

Shares of WCN stock opened at $187.41 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $48.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.77. The business’s 50 day moving average is $179.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. Waste Connections, Inc. has a 12-month low of $160.34 and a 12-month high of $194.83.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The business services provider reported $1.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.04). Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 6.92%. Analysts expect that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.315 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Waste Connections’s payout ratio is currently 52.72%.

About Waste Connections

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.