Waste Management (WM) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE: WM) is a leading provider of integrated waste management and environmental services in North America. The company offers end-to-end solutions that span collection, transfer, disposal and recycling, along with landfill operations and related infrastructure. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Waste Management serves a broad customer base that includes residential, commercial, industrial and municipal clients.

Core services include curbside and commercial waste collection, roll-off and temporary container services, materials recovery and recycling, and engineered landfill disposal. In addition to traditional waste handling, the company develops and operates systems to capture and convert landfill gas into energy and renewable natural gas, and it manages facilities for organics processing and other resource recovery efforts.

Waste Management operates a network of transfer stations, recycling centers and landfill sites across the United States and Canada, providing regional and national capabilities for routing, disposal and materials marketing. The firm also offers value-added services focused on sustainability and regulatory compliance, supporting customers’ waste-reduction and diversion goals through program design, reporting and material processing.

Founded in 1968 and grown through an extensive program of acquisitions and network expansion, Waste Management has built an integrated platform for handling a wide range of waste streams. Jim C. Fish serves as president and chief executive officer, and the company emphasizes investments in technologies and operations intended to improve environmental performance and advance circular-economy outcomes for its customers and communities.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $215.90 to $218.51
• 50-Day Range: $214.19 to $238.94
• 52-Week Range: $194.11 to $248.13
• Volume: 1.91 million shs
• Average Volume: 2.12 million shs
• Market Capitalization: $87.58 billion
• P/E Ratio: 31.56
• Dividend Yield: 1.73%
• Price Target: $255.67
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy

Waste Management Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Waste Management scored higher than 96% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 34th out of 297 stocks in the business services sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.7 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Moderate Buy

Consensus Rating

Waste Management has received a consensus rating of Moderate Buy. The company's average rating score is 2.71, and is based on 1 strong buy rating, 15 buy ratings, 8 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Waste Management has a consensus price target of $255.67, representing about 17.2% upside from its current price of $218.09.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Waste Management has been the subject of 7 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 12.52%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Waste Management are expected to grow by 12.52% in the coming year, from $8.15 to $9.17 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Waste Management is 31.56, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 44.77.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Waste Management is 31.56, which means that it is trading at a more expensive P/E ratio than the Business Services sector average P/E ratio of about 30.49.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Waste Management has a PEG Ratio of 2.28. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Waste Management has a P/B Ratio of 8.74. P/B Ratios above 3 indicate that a company could be overvalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

1.67% of the float of Waste Management has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Waste Management has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.11, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Waste Management has recently increased by 8.23%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 4.2 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Waste Management pays a meaningful dividend of 1.73%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Waste Management has been increasing its dividend for 22 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Waste Management is 54.70%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Waste Management will have a dividend payout ratio of 41.22% next year. This indicates that Waste Management will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 4.1 / 5
• News Sentiment: 0.61

News Sentiment

Waste Management has a news sentiment score of 0.61. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.50 average news sentiment score of Business Services companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 29 news articles for Waste Management this week, compared to 11 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

52 people have searched for WM on MarketBeat in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 18% compared to the previous 30 days.

MarketBeat Follows

17 people have added Waste Management to their MarketBeat watchlist in the last 30 days. This is an increase of 70% compared to the previous 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.4 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Waste Management insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $8,569,282.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

0.18% of the stock of Waste Management is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

80.40% of the stock of Waste Management is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Record date for 3/27 Dividend: 3/13/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 3/27 Dividend: 3/13/2026
• Dividend Payable: 3/27/2026
• Last Earnings: 4/28/2026
• Today: 5/23/2026
• Record date for 6/18 Dividend: 6/05/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 6/18 Dividend: 6/05/2026
• Dividend Payable: 6/18/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 7/27/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Business Services
• Industry: Waste Removal Svcs
• Sub-Industry: Environmental & Facilities Services
• Current Symbol: NYSE:WM
• CIK: 823768
• Web: www.wm.com
• Phone: (713) 512-6200
• Fax: 713-512-6299
• Employees: 60,500
• Year Founded: 1968

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Waste Management: $255.67
• High Price Target: $275.00
• Low Price Target: $230.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +17.2%
• Consensus Rating: Moderate Buy
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.71
• Research Coverage: 24 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $6.91
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 31.56
• Forward P/E Ratio: 26.76
• P/E Growth: 2.28
• Net Income: $2.71 billion
• Net Margins: 10.99%
• Pretax Margin: 13.89%
• Return on Equity: 31.90%
• Return on Assets: 6.76%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 2.22
• Current Ratio: 0.93
• Quick Ratio: 0.89

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $25.20 billion
• Price / Sales: 3.47
• Cash Flow: $15.00 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 14.54
• Book Value: $24.96 per share
• Price / Book: 8.74

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 401,580,000
• Free Float: 400,853,000
• Market Cap: $87.58 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.49