WealthPlan Investment Management LLC Invests $271,000 in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

WealthPlan Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM – Get Rating) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,639 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $271,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Waste Management by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,984,227 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $5,925,244,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016,798 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 30,982,963 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,963,780,000 after buying an additional 154,917 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,648,656 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $853,286,000 after buying an additional 115,020 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 18.8% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 3,194,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $482,604,000 after buying an additional 504,966 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 3,080,916 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $471,319,000 after buying an additional 81,547 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.48% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Tara J. Hemmer sold 7,515 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total value of $1,164,825.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,214,010. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Tara J. Hemmer sold 7,515 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $155.00, for a total value of $1,164,825.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 46,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,214,010. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Leslie K. Nagy sold 800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $151.11, for a total transaction of $120,888.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 5,210 shares in the company, valued at $787,283.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,027 shares of company stock worth $4,806,619. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Waste Management Stock Down 1.6 %

WM stock opened at $153.15 on Friday. Waste Management, Inc. has a 52 week low of $138.89 and a 52 week high of $175.98. The company has a market capitalization of $62.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $152.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $159.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.12.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 1st. The business services provider reported $1.30 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by ($0.09). Waste Management had a return on equity of 32.91% and a net margin of 11.36%. The company had revenue of $4.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.97 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.26 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Waste Management, Inc. will post 6.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, December 8th that permits the company to buyback $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Waste Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.83%. This is an increase from Waste Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 9th. Waste Management’s payout ratio is 51.95%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on WM. Raymond James decreased their price target on shares of Waste Management from $167.00 to $166.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of Waste Management from $157.00 to $151.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 6th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Waste Management from $167.00 to $158.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 2nd. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Waste Management from $183.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 2nd. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Waste Management from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $190.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.50.

Waste Management Profile

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Waste Management, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of waste management environmental services. It operates through the following segments: East Tier, West Tier, and Other. The East Tier segment consists of Eastern U.S., the Great Lakes Region, and Canada. The West Tier segment includes the upper Midwest region and British Columbia, Canada.