Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) Shares Sold by Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.

Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc. decreased its stake in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN - Free Report) by 14.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,125 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 1,416 shares during the period. Financiere des Professionnels Fonds d investissement inc.'s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $1,586,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 4.6% in the first quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Tranquility Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 1.4% in the first quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 4,354 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $850,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Oarsman Capital Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Waste Connections by 41.4% in the fourth quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 222 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its position in Waste Connections by 28.9% during the first quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 290 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 59.7% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 190 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.09% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on WCN. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Waste Connections from $192.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Waste Connections from $209.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Waste Connections to a "strong-buy" rating and set a $213.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, June 9th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $214.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $197.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $213.93.

Waste Connections Stock Up 0.4%

WCN traded up $0.81 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $182.00. 1,455,364 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,112,403. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $190.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $187.57. The company has a market cap of $47.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.90, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.60. Waste Connections, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.36 and a fifty-two week high of $201.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.70.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.22 billion. Waste Connections had a net margin of 6.93% and a return on equity of 15.74%. The business's revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.04 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th were issued a dividend of $0.315 per share. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 7th. Waste Connections's dividend payout ratio is currently 51.85%.

About Waste Connections

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.