Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) Reaches New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as C$263.95 and last traded at C$263.56, with a volume of 65091 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$260.80.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on WCN. Eight Capital set a C$270.00 price target on Waste Connections and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. ATB Capital raised their price objective on Waste Connections from C$255.00 to C$260.00 in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of Waste Connections to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$205.10.

Waste Connections Trading Up 0.5 %

The stock has a 50-day moving average of C$249.85 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$242.79. The company has a market cap of C$68.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 100.60, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.70.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were given a $0.426 dividend. This represents a $1.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. This is a positive change from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Waste Connections’s payout ratio is currently 34.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Edward E. Guillet sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$249.52, for a total transaction of C$1,996,164.00. Also, Senior Officer Robert Andres Nielsen sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$260.63, for a total value of C$260,625.00. Insiders have sold a total of 9,571 shares of company stock worth $2,400,841 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

About Waste Connections

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.