Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) Receives $123.17 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Key Points

• Casella Waste Systems, Inc. has received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from eight research firms, with an average 12-month target price of $123.17.
• The company's recent earnings report showed a 23.4% year-over-year revenue increase, with EPS of $0.36 surpassing expectations.
• Significant increases in institutional holdings have been noted, including a 48.2% increase in stake by Wasatch Advisors LP during the fourth quarter.

Shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $123.1667.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CWST shares. Raymond James Financial set a $125.00 target price on Casella Waste Systems and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a report on Friday, June 6th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 44.3% during the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 6,666 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $769,000 after purchasing an additional 2,048 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 365,811 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $42,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,379 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1,106.7% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 867,285 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $100,067,000 after purchasing an additional 795,414 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 18.8% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 540,752 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $62,392,000 after purchasing an additional 85,493 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new position in Casella Waste Systems in the second quarter worth $734,000. 99.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of CWST traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $98.55. The stock had a trading volume of 35,074 shares, compared to its average volume of 453,123. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.61. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $111.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 547.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.09 and a beta of 0.83. Casella Waste Systems has a 1-year low of $97.05 and a 1-year high of $121.24.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.05. Casella Waste Systems had a return on equity of 4.97% and a net margin of 0.64%. The business had revenue of $465.33 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $454.01 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.22 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 23.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Casella Waste Systems will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Casella Waste Systems Company Profile

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.