Zacks Research Upgrades Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) to Strong-Buy

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CWST. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $125.00 to $111.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Loop Capital raised shares of Casella Waste Systems from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $88.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 19th. Stifel Nicolaus started coverage on Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Monday, September 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $113.00 price objective for the company. Barclays set a $95.00 price objective on Casella Waste Systems and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $113.56.

Casella Waste Systems Trading Up 0.7%

CWST opened at $98.65 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.51 and a quick ratio of 1.43. Casella Waste Systems has a fifty-two week low of $82.22 and a fifty-two week high of $121.24. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $94.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $98.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 411.06 and a beta of 0.80.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The industrial products company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $485.35 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $477.24 million. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 0.85% and a return on equity of 5.63%. Casella Waste Systems’s revenue was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Casella Waste Systems will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CWST. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 8.7% during the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 3,708,528 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $351,865,000 after acquiring an additional 296,405 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 7.3% during the third quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,876,061 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $272,881,000 after buying an additional 195,947 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 20.0% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,597,599 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $299,711,000 after buying an additional 432,589 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Casella Waste Systems by 39.3% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,010,818 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $190,786,000 after buying an additional 566,887 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in Casella Waste Systems by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 1,809,867 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $171,720,000 after buying an additional 9,712 shares during the last quarter. 99.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Casella Waste Systems

Casella Waste Systems, Inc is a regional resource management company headquartered in Rutland, Vermont. Established in 1975, the company has grown from a single-truck operation into a multi-state provider of integrated waste management solutions. Casella offers a comprehensive range of services, including residential, commercial and industrial waste collection, transfer station operations, landfill disposal, recycling processing and organics management.

Through a network of solid waste transfer stations, recycling facilities and landfills, Casella serves communities primarily across the northeastern United States and parts of the mid-Atlantic region.