Van ECK Associates Corp Acquires 3,554 Shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) by 11.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 34,481 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,554 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp owned about 0.05% of Casella Waste Systems worth $3,648,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the 4th quarter worth approximately $201,000. Mather Group LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1,606.7% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 256 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the period. Longboard Asset Management LP acquired a new stake in Casella Waste Systems during the fourth quarter worth approximately $221,000. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Casella Waste Systems by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 397,261 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,034,000 after acquiring an additional 7,910 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 71.1% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 2,497 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $264,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038 shares in the last quarter. 99.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CWST. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a report on Friday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $127.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Casella Waste Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $115.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $114.00 to $107.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Casella Waste Systems currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.20.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CWST opened at $115.86 on Thursday. Casella Waste Systems, Inc. has a twelve month low of $86.41 and a twelve month high of $115.92. The company has a quick ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 2.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $107.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.34 billion, a PE ratio of 503.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.60 and a beta of 1.04.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The industrial products company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.25. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 0.87% and a return on equity of 4.46%. On average, analysts anticipate that Casella Waste Systems, Inc. will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Casella Waste Systems

Casella Waste Systems, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers.