Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. Buys 201 Shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. boosted its holdings in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 14.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,584 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the period. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd.’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $320,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Swedbank AB lifted its stake 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. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Waste Management by 18.4% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 49,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,270,000 after acquiring an additional 7,776 shares during the last quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Waste Management by 3.2% in the third quarter. Carret Asset Management LLC now owns 1,607 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $334,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Waste Management by 77.4% in the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 12,298 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,553,000 after acquiring an additional 5,367 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Financial Bankshares Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Waste Management during the 3rd quarter worth about $204,000. Institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Waste Management from $220.00 to $226.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $213.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $204.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $231.00 to $237.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Nine investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $235.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Waste Management news, SVP Rafael Carrasco sold 4,000 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.89, for a total transaction of $903,560.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 18,531 shares in the company, valued at $4,185,967.59. The trade was a 17.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James C. Fish, Jr. sold 44,405 shares of Waste Management stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $228.43, for a total transaction of $10,143,434.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 211,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,212,664.23. The trade was a 17.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 60,460 shares of company stock worth $13,721,774. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Waste Management Stock Performance

Shares of WM stock opened at $229.70 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $213.79 and a 200-day moving average of $213.29. The company has a market cap of $92.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Waste Management, Inc. has a one year low of $196.59 and a one year high of $230.63.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The business services provider reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.79 by ($0.09). Waste Management had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 37.93%. Equities research analysts forecast that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Waste Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.12%.

Waste Management Company Profile

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.