Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) Announces $0.29 Quarterly Dividend

Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.285 per share by the business services provider on Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th.

Waste Connections has increased its dividend by an average of 11.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 7 consecutive years. Waste Connections has a dividend payout ratio of 20.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Waste Connections to earn $5.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.14 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 20.7%.

Waste Connections Price Performance

Shares of WCN stock traded down $1.00 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $165.18. 1,608,297 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 913,076. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $168.32 and its 200-day moving average is $151.83. The stock has a market cap of $42.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.66. Waste Connections has a 52 week low of $126.12 and a 52 week high of $173.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.68.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.02 by $0.02. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 14.42% and a net margin of 9.51%. The business had revenue of $2.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.89 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Waste Connections will post 4.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Waste Connections

In other news, Director Andrea E. Bertone sold 902 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $169.17, for a total transaction of $152,591.34. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WCN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Waste Connections from $153.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. StockNews.com raised Waste Connections from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. CIBC lifted their target price on Waste Connections from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Waste Connections from $136.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Waste Connections from $195.00 to $217.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Waste Connections currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $178.87.

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.