Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday. The company traded as high as C$274.03 and last traded at C$273.92, with a volume of 348,008 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$271.03.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, UBS Group raised Waste Connections from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$200.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, September 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy” and an average price target of C$200.00.

Waste Connections Stock Up 1.1%

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of C$234.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$228.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 123.96. The company has a market capitalization of C$68.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.42, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.53.

Waste Connections Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.3850 dividend. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 5th. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.39%.

Insider Activity at Waste Connections

In other news, insider James M. Little sold 2,000 shares of Waste Connections stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$258.79, for a total value of C$517,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 32,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$8,383,502.05. The trade was a 5.81% decrease in their position. Company insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

About Waste Connections

Waste Connections ( wasteconnections.com ) is an integrated solid waste services company that provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer and disposal services, including by rail, along with resource recovery primarily through recycling and renewable fuels generation. The Company serves approximately nine million residential, commercial and industrial customers in mostly exclusive and secondary markets across 46 states in the U.S. and six provinces in Canada. Waste Connections also provides non-hazardous oilfield waste treatment, recovery and disposal services in several basins across the U.S. and Canada, as well as intermodal services for the movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest.