In the latest trading session, Waste Management (WM) closed at $99.30, marking a -0.43% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.12%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.23%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.36%.
Prior to today’s trading, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had gained 5.63% over the past month. This has lagged the Business Services sector’s gain of 8.64% and the S&P 500’s gain of 6.17% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WM as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect WM to post earnings of $0.93 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 2.2%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.69 billion, up 5.11% from the year-ago period.
WM’s full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.40 per share and revenue of $15.62 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +4.76% and +4.71%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for WM should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.27% lower. WM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note WM’s current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 22.67. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 25.02, so we one might conclude that WM is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can also see that WM currently has a PEG ratio of 2.45. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company’s expected earnings growth rate into account. The Waste Removal Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.34 as of yesterday’s close.
The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 80, which puts it in the top 32% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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