Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Sells 1,723 Shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lowered its stake in shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 30.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 3,973 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,723 shares during the quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $711,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in WCN. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Waste Connections by 307.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,927,155 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $344,615,000 after acquiring an additional 1,453,733 shares during the period. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI grew its holdings in Waste Connections by 438.5% during the first quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI now owns 535,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $92,106,000 after purchasing an additional 436,041 shares during the period. Nicholas Company Inc. purchased a new stake in Waste Connections in the second quarter worth $64,176,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 252.5% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 510,243 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $89,477,000 after buying an additional 365,487 shares during the period. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc purchased a new position in shares of Waste Connections during the 3rd quarter valued at $54,800,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WCN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Waste Connections from $198.00 to $197.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 25th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Waste Connections from $185.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $190.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. CIBC boosted their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $191.00 to $193.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $205.00 price target (up from $200.00) on shares of Waste Connections in a report on Friday, October 25th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $195.56.

Waste Connections Trading Up 1.3 %

WCN stock opened at $189.01 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $48.78 billion, a PE ratio of 51.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a current ratio of 0.77. Waste Connections, Inc. has a one year low of $131.67 and a one year high of $189.48. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $180.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $177.40.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.30 by $0.05. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.43% and a net margin of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.17 EPS. Waste Connections’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 4.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 7th were issued a dividend of $0.315 per share. This is a positive change from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.62%.

About Waste Connections

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.