Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) Hits New 1-Year High at $99.76

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $99.76 and last traded at $99.76, with a volume of 15284 shares. The stock had previously closed at $98.78.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on CWST. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Casella Waste Systems from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Casella Waste Systems from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Casella Waste Systems presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $99.71.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Up 0.1 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $90.91 and a 200 day moving average of $84.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 221.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The industrial products company reported $0.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $359.57 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $360.08 million. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 2.01% and a return on equity of 5.81%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.18 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Casella Waste Systems, Inc. will post 0.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO John W. Casella sold 1,673 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.13, for a total value of $157,479.49. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 35,189 shares in the company, valued at $3,312,340.57. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, President Edmond Coletta sold 733 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.31, for a total transaction of $69,129.23. Following the transaction, the president now owns 170,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,078,534.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO John W. Casella sold 1,673 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.13, for a total value of $157,479.49. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 35,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,312,340.57. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,238 shares of company stock worth $1,026,395 in the last three months. 4.75% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Casella Waste Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CWST. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,478,870 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $468,224,000 after acquiring an additional 92,085 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 983,826 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $84,078,000 after buying an additional 148,913 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 132,719 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $11,342,000 after buying an additional 16,686 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Casella Waste Systems during the 4th quarter valued at $202,000. Finally, FIL Ltd increased its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 144,818 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,376,000 after purchasing an additional 1,247 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

Casella Waste Systems Company Profile

Casella Waste Systems, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers.