Brokerages Set Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) PT at $111.50

Shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $114.00.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James lifted their price target on Casella Waste Systems from $121.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $114.00 to $107.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, William Blair began coverage on Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock.

Casella Waste Systems Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CWST opened at $106.06 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $106.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $103.41. Casella Waste Systems has a fifty-two week low of $80.04 and a fifty-two week high of $114.88. The company has a market capitalization of $6.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 883.83, a P/E/G ratio of 6.53 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 2.48 and a current ratio of 2.55.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $411.63 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $412.59 million. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 0.46% and a return on equity of 3.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. Analysts expect that Casella Waste Systems will post 0.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Casella Waste Systems

In other Casella Waste Systems news, SVP Paul Ligon sold 1,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.81, for a total transaction of $184,781.30. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 21,085 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,252,088.85. The trade was a 7.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 4.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 108.0% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 66,129 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,579,000 after acquiring an additional 34,340 shares in the last quarter. Williams Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems in the second quarter worth $2,427,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 667.9% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 48,231 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,785,000 after purchasing an additional 41,950 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 861,463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $85,476,000 after purchasing an additional 26,189 shares during the period. Finally, MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the 3rd quarter valued at $562,000. 99.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Casella Waste Systems

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.