Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Acquires Shares of 5,400 Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. bought a new position in shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,400 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $806,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacifica Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Waste Connections in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Headinvest LLC acquired a new stake in Waste Connections during the third quarter worth approximately $36,000. Operose Advisors LLC bought a new position in Waste Connections during the 3rd quarter worth $40,000. Rational Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Waste Connections in the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Waste Connections during the 4th quarter valued at $61,000. Institutional investors own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Waste Connections

In related 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 value of $152,591.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on WCN shares. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $136.00 to $163.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Atb Cap Markets cut shares of Waste Connections from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Waste Connections from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. UBS Group cut Waste Connections from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $170.00 to $181.00 in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Waste Connections from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $178.87.

Waste Connections Trading Down 0.6 %

WCN traded down $1.00 during trading on Thursday, reaching $165.18. 1,608,297 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 913,076. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88. Waste Connections, Inc. has a one year low of $126.12 and a one year high of $173.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $168.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $151.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.62 billion, a PE ratio of 55.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.66.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.05 billion. Waste Connections had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 14.42%. Waste Connections’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 4.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be given a dividend of $0.285 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.51%.

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.