Covenant Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM – Get Rating) by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 13,298 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Covenant Asset Management LLC's holdings in Waste Management were worth $2,034,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,313,607 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $5,597,207,000 after purchasing an additional 332,941 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 30,615,210 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $4,852,507,000 after purchasing an additional 673,451 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,533,636 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $889,809,000 after purchasing an additional 221,439 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Waste Management in the 4th quarter worth $687,551,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in Waste Management by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,223,694 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $371,134,000 after acquiring an additional 13,985 shares in the last quarter. 74.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

WM has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer set a $160.00 price target on shares of Waste Management in a report on Tuesday, July 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Waste Management from $175.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $167.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

Waste Management Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of WM stock traded down $0.36 on Friday, hitting $161.55. 26,121 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,833,213. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $168.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $160.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.78 billion, a PE ratio of 31.62, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.76. Waste Management, Inc. has a twelve month low of $138.58 and a twelve month high of $175.98.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 27th. The business services provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.08. Waste Management had a net margin of 11.27% and a return on equity of 30.69%. The company had revenue of $5.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $4.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.27 earnings per share. Waste Management's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Waste Management, Inc. will post 5.7 EPS for the current year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 9th were given a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 8th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. Waste Management's payout ratio is currently 50.78%.

Waste Management Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Waste Management, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides waste management environmental services to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in North America. 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, develops, and operates landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States, as well as owns and operates transfer stations.

Read More

• Get a free copy of the StockNews.com research report on Waste Management (WM)
• This Is A Memorable Time To Buy Into Micron Technology
• Declining Profits Challenge the CarMax Value Proposition
• How Does Keurig Dr Pepper Compare To Larger Rivals Coke & Pepsi?
• Let Paychex Stock Work Hard For You
• Thor Industries Hammers Out A Bottom

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM – Get Rating).

Receive News & Ratings for Waste Management Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Waste Management and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.