Waste Management, Inc. (WM) To Go Ex-Dividend on December 6th

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 14th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.75 per share by the business services provider on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th.

Waste Management has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 21 years. Waste Management has a payout ratio of 37.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Waste Management to earn $8.03 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.4%.

Waste Management Stock Performance

Shares of Waste Management stock opened at $217.89 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $211.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $209.67. The company has a market cap of $87.45 billion, a PE ratio of 33.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.74. Waste Management has a one year low of $168.73 and a one year high of $226.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.89.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.51 billion. Waste Management had a net margin of 12.35% and a return on equity of 39.88%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Waste Management will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Maryrose Sylvester sold 310 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $834,946.25. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Waste Management from $213.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Waste Management to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Waste Management from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Waste Management in a research report on Friday, October 4th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $220.00 target price on the stock. Eleven 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.11.

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.