Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 1.5% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,336 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 171 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $2,416,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of WM. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Waste Management by 636.1% in the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 16,120 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,455,000 after acquiring an additional 13,930 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in Waste Management by 301.5% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 12,929 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,971,000 after purchasing an additional 9,709 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its position in shares of Waste Management by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 277,158 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $42,250,000 after buying an additional 25,740 shares during the last quarter. Operose Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Waste Management by 15.5% during the third quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 1,369 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $209,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its stake in Waste Management by 128.2% in the third quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 898,796 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $137,012,000 after acquiring an additional 504,924 shares during the period. 80.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

WM has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $214.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Waste Management from $211.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Raymond James raised their target price on Waste Management from $219.00 to $229.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Waste Management from $215.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Waste Management from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $217.61.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Michael J. Watson sold 4,208 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.28, for a total value of $859,610.24. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 45,644 shares in the company, valued at $9,324,156.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Waste Management Stock Performance

Shares of Waste Management stock traded up $0.64 on Wednesday, hitting $212.70. 1,868,995 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,719,063. Waste Management, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.71 and a 1 year high of $214.54. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $207.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $199.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $85.31 billion, a PE ratio of 34.76, a PEG ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.74.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The business services provider reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.23. Waste Management had a return on equity of 38.61% and a net margin of 11.98%. The business had revenue of $5.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.31 earnings per share. Waste Management’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.31 EPS for the current year.

Waste Management Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.41%. Waste Management’s payout ratio is 49.10%.

About Waste Management

Waste Management, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of environmental solutions to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services, including picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from where it was generated to a transfer station, material recovery facility (MRF), or disposal site; and owns and operates transfer stations, as well as owns, develops, and operates landfill facilities that produce landfill gas used as renewable natural gas for generating electricity.