Korea Investment CORP Reduces Stock Position in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Korea Investment CORP decreased its stake in shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 18.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 166,196 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 38,671 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $28,516,000 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 WCN. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 34.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 303,040 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $54,190,000 after acquiring an additional 77,466 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Waste Connections by 785.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,682 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $803,000 after purchasing an additional 4,153 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc. raised its stake in Waste Connections by 6.7% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 722,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $129,184,000 after purchasing an additional 45,215 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Waste Connections by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 72,189 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,909,000 after purchasing an additional 4,330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 20.9% in the 4th quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 129,256 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $22,178,000 after buying an additional 22,310 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on WCN. CIBC decreased their price objective on Waste Connections from $215.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com lowered Waste Connections from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price objective (up from $200.00) on shares of Waste Connections in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $192.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $205.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.43.

Waste Connections Price Performance

Waste Connections stock opened at $192.80 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $49.76 billion, a PE ratio of 80.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.81. The company’s 50 day moving average is $187.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $182.92. Waste Connections, Inc. has a 52-week low of $160.34 and a 52-week high of $194.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03.

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%. On average, research analysts expect that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were issued a $0.315 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Waste Connections’s payout ratio is currently 52.72%.

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.