Guardian Partners Inc. Invests $2.63 Million in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 14,927 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,626,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in WCN. Blueshift Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Waste Connections during the third quarter valued at $552,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new stake in Waste Connections during the third quarter valued at $2,503,000. Barclays PLC grew its position in Waste Connections by 34.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 303,040 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $54,190,000 after buying an additional 77,466 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Waste Connections by 785.1% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,682 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $803,000 after buying an additional 4,153 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. grew its position in Waste Connections by 6.7% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 722,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $129,184,000 after buying an additional 45,215 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on WCN shares. CIBC dropped their price target on shares of Waste Connections from $215.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $210.00 price target (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Waste Connections in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Waste Connections from $192.00 to $195.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $214.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $195.00 to $196.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Waste Connections currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.43.

Waste Connections Stock Performance

NYSE:WCN opened at $189.35 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $185.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $182.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03. The company has a market cap of $48.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 79.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 0.81. Waste Connections, Inc. has a twelve month low of $160.34 and a twelve month high of $194.83.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The business services provider reported $1.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.04). Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.54% and a net margin of 6.92%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.315 per share. This represents a $1.26 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. Waste Connections’s payout ratio is currently 52.72%.

Waste Connections Profile

Waste Connections, Inc provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals.