Brookstone Capital Management Sells 62 Shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Brookstone Capital Management lowered its holdings in shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 2.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,922 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 62 shares during the period. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $501,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WCN. Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of Waste Connections by 2.3% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 8,103,895 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,423,373,000 after acquiring an additional 178,870 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 0.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,313,725 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $950,055,000 after purchasing an additional 30,890 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in Waste Connections by 35.3% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,678,562 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $478,777,000 after purchasing an additional 699,012 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp raised its position in Waste Connections by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 2,332,002 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $417,385,000 after purchasing an additional 142,751 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in Waste Connections by 15.5% in the 3rd quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 2,303,339 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $401,936,000 after buying an additional 309,619 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WCN. CIBC reduced their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $215.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Waste Connections in a research report on Friday, October 4th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $196.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Waste Connections from $199.00 to $201.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on Waste Connections from $195.00 to $196.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Waste Connections has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.75.

Waste Connections Stock Up 0.2 %

Waste Connections stock opened at $178.45 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $181.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $180.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Waste Connections, Inc. has a twelve month low of $146.51 and a twelve month high of $194.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.76.

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

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. This is an increase from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.62%.

Waste Connections Company Profile

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.