Waste Management (WM) closed at $220.50 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.29% move from the prior day. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.85%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 1.36%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.72%.
The garbage and recycling hauler's shares have seen a decrease of 5.31% over the last month, not keeping up with the Business Services sector's gain of 1.01% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.38%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Waste Management in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $2.02, reflecting a 3.06% increase from the same quarter last year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $6.49 billion, indicating a 15.71% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $7.54 per share and revenue of $25.37 billion, indicating changes of +4.29% and +14.98%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Waste Management. 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 business outlook.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.06% lower. Waste Management currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
With respect to valuation, Waste Management is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 28.87. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 28.72.
Also, we should mention that WM has a PEG ratio of 2.67. 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 had an average PEG ratio of 2.5 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 179, finds itself in the bottom 28% echelons 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Waste Management, Inc. (WM): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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