Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Boosts Holdings in Waste Connections, Inc. $WCN

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its position in Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 22.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,030 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 747 shares during the period. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $752,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC lifted its position in Waste Connections by 4.6% in the first quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC now owns 1,278 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. MWA Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. MWA Asset Management now owns 4,783 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Tranquility Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Tranquility Partners LLC now owns 4,354 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $850,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. MAI Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 1,116 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $218,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Waste Connections by 29.2% in the 1st quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 283 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on WCN. Scotiabank raised their target price on Waste Connections from $202.00 to $208.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $216.00 to $218.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Atb Cap Markets upgraded shares of Waste Connections from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. CIBC reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Waste Connections in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Melius initiated coverage on shares of Waste Connections in a research report on Monday, June 9th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Waste Connections has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $213.64.

Waste Connections Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of WCN stock opened at $174.30 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $181.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $187.31. Waste Connections, Inc. has a twelve month low of $169.36 and a twelve month high of $201.66. The company has a market capitalization of $44.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 70.28, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.04. Waste Connections had a net margin of 6.97% and a return on equity of 15.72%. The firm had revenue of $2.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. Waste Connections has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. Research analysts forecast that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 5.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Connections Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 6th were issued a $0.315 dividend. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 6th. Waste Connections’s payout ratio is presently 50.81%.

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.