HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 769 Shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST)

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) by 20.2% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 4,581 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 769 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Casella Waste Systems were worth $453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CWST. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Casella Waste Systems by 64.5% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 528 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 207 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 2,110 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $210,000 after acquiring an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 12.8% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 2,743 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $272,000 after acquiring an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 9.9% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,932 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the period. Finally, Crestwood Advisors Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems during the 2nd quarter valued at $293,000. Institutional investors own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Casella Waste Systems

In related news, SVP Paul Ligon sold 1,730 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $106.81, for a total transaction of $184,781.30. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 21,085 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 4.24% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CWST has been the subject of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Casella Waste Systems from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. 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 report on Thursday, September 19th. William Blair started coverage on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced 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 research report on Friday, November 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

Casella Waste Systems Price Performance

CWST stock opened at $105.97 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 883.08, a PEG ratio of 6.53 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $106.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $103.64. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $80.04 and a 52-week high of $114.88.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last released its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $411.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $412.59 million. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 0.46% and a return on equity of 3.04%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Casella Waste Systems, Inc. will post 0.65 EPS for the current year.

Casella Waste Systems Profile

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.