Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Has $1.02 Billion Stock Position in Waste Connections, Inc. $WCN

Key Points

• Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD reduced its stake in Waste Connections by 9.1%, selling 521,811 shares, and now holds approximately 2.02% of the company valued at over $1 billion.
• Several institutional investors are actively adjusting their positions in Waste Connections, with Nuveen LLC acquiring a new stake valued at $623 million and GAMMA Investing LLC increasing its stake by over 19,500%.
• Waste Connections recently reported a **beat** on EPS and revenue expectations for the last quarter, earning $1.29 per share against a consensus estimate of $1.25.

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD reduced its holdings in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN - Free Report) by 9.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,214,368 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 521,811 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned approximately 2.02% of Waste Connections worth $1,017,794,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital Fund Management S.A. lifted its position in Waste Connections by 303.6% in the 1st quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 77,032 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $15,036,000 after purchasing an additional 57,945 shares during the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in Waste Connections by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 12,357 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,370,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its position in Waste Connections by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 35,377 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $6,822,000 after purchasing an additional 4,441 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. lifted its position in Waste Connections by 12.8% in the 1st quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 44,995 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $8,773,000 after purchasing an additional 5,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Waste Connections by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 896,243 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $174,938,000 after purchasing an additional 60,533 shares during the last quarter. 86.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on WCN shares. Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $224.00 to $211.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $216.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. CIBC reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Waste Connections in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $202.00 to $208.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Atb Cap Markets raised shares of Waste Connections from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $215.00.

Waste Connections Price Performance

Shares of WCN traded down $2.4190 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $182.3610. The company's stock had a trading volume of 897,977 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,128,747. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $185.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.53, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.67. Waste Connections, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $169.36 and a fifty-two week high of $201.66.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.39 billion. Waste Connections had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 15.72%. The business's revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. Waste Connections has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 5.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 6th were paid a $0.315 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 6th. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Waste Connections's payout ratio is currently 50.81%.

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.