Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC Grows Holdings in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 278,185 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,127 shares during the period. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $56,135,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Waste Management by 94,414.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 2,591,584 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $538,013,000 after acquiring an additional 2,588,842 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its position in Waste Management by 67.2% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,765,594 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $366,537,000 after acquiring an additional 709,678 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in Waste Management by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 5,120,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,063,072,000 after buying an additional 520,096 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 32.1% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,801,842 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $374,062,000 after acquiring an additional 437,613 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of Waste Management by 138.0% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 718,546 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $149,168,000 after buying an additional 416,579 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on WM shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Waste Management from $213.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Waste Management from $230.00 to $231.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $214.00 to $227.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Waste Management from $220.00 to $226.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Ten 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.72.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Maryrose Sylvester sold 310 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $66,795.70. Following the transaction, the director now owns 3,875 shares in the company, valued at approximately $834,946.25. The trade was a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Waste Management Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE WM opened at $211.57 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $213.33 and its 200-day moving average is $211.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Waste Management, Inc. has a one year low of $183.00 and a one year high of $230.39. The firm has a market cap of $84.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.77.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.07. Waste Management had a return on equity of 39.88% and a net margin of 12.35%. The business had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. Waste Management’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. Waste Management’s payout ratio is 45.87%.

About Waste Management

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.