Beacon Capital Management LLC Purchases 100 Shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) by 57.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 273 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Beacon Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Waste Management were worth $55,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Waste Management by 22.1% during the fourth quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 16,597 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,349,000 after buying an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Waste Management by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. WealthPlan Investment Management LLC now owns 1,100 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV increased its holdings in Waste Management by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 7,255 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,464,000 after buying an additional 130 shares during the last quarter. Spinnaker Trust increased its holdings in Waste Management by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 3,614 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $729,000 after buying an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new stake in Waste Management during the fourth quarter worth about $3,953,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Waste Management

In other news, EVP Charles C. Boettcher sold 693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $220.59, for a total value of $152,868.87. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 45,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,046,109.78. The trade was a 1.50 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Johnson Varkey sold 560 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.11, for a total transaction of $123,261.60. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,152 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,014,446.72. The trade was a 5.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 16,055 shares of company stock worth $3,578,340 over the last three months. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Waste Management Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of Waste Management stock opened at $227.80 on Monday. Waste Management, Inc. has a 1 year low of $196.59 and a 1 year high of $230.39. The firm has a market cap of $91.43 billion, a PE ratio of 33.50, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $212.11 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $212.22.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The business services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.79 by ($0.09). Waste Management had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 38.88%. Analysts expect that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on WM shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Waste Management in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Waste Management from $255.00 to $238.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Scotiabank lifted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, CIBC lifted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $228.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $235.94.

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.