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

Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as C$272.96 and last traded at C$273.09, with a volume of 86562 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$271.92.

Analyst Ratings Changes

WCN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Scotiabank raised shares of Waste Connections to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. ATB Capital boosted their target price on shares of Waste Connections from C$255.00 to C$260.00 in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Eight Capital set a C$270.00 price target on shares of Waste Connections and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$205.10.

Waste Connections Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of C$70.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.05, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.72. The firm’s fifty day moving average is C$250.96 and its 200-day moving average is C$243.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 100.60, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Waste Connections

In other Waste Connections news, Director Edward E. Guillet sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$260.63, for a total transaction of C$260,625.00. Insiders sold a total of 9,571 shares of company stock worth $2,400,841 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.21% of the company’s stock.

Waste Connections Company 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.