Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. Makes New $19 Million Investment in Waste Management, Inc. $WM

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 93,200 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $19,005,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Common Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Waste Management by 12.9% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC now owns 55,895 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $12,458,000 after buying an additional 6,391 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Waste Management by 3.1% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 460,317 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $105,776,000 after acquiring an additional 14,003 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Waste Management by 16.2% in the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 409,741 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $94,155,000 after acquiring an additional 57,028 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its position in Waste Management by 56.1% during the second quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 46,398 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,341,000 after purchasing an additional 16,673 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC lifted its stake in Waste Management by 51.1% during the second quarter. Kavar Capital Partners Group LLC now owns 14,207 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,166,000 after purchasing an additional 4,803 shares during the last quarter. 80.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WM has been the subject of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas Exane cut their price objective on Waste Management from $248.00 to $245.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Waste Management from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, October 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $267.00 target price on shares of Waste Management in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of Waste Management from $252.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Waste Management from $235.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $257.89.

Waste Management Price Performance

WM opened at $234.44 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.21, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $218.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $225.32. The firm has a market cap of $93.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.77, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.38. Waste Management, Inc. has a 1 year low of $197.46 and a 1 year high of $248.13.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The business services provider reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.18 by ($0.03). Waste Management had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 31.97%. The company had revenue of $6.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.81 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.98 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Waste Management, Inc. will post 8.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Waste Management Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 11th were issued a dividend of $0.9450 per share. This represents a $3.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 11th. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.61%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Waste Management news, CAO John Carroll sold 1,365 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $219.90, for a total transaction of $300,163.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 3,509 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $771,629.10. This represents a 28.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.18% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Waste Management Company Profile

Waste Management, Inc, doing business as WM (NYSE:WM), is an environmental services company that provides waste collection, transportation, disposal, recycling and resource-recovery services. The company serves residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers through a network of collection operations, transfer stations, landfills, recycling facilities and other environmental infrastructure.

WM’s services include curbside and commercial waste collection, construction and demolition debris management, recycling, organics processing and landfill disposal.