Huntington National Bank Buys 232 Shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN)

Huntington National Bank grew its stake in shares of Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) by 82.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 514 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 232 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank’s holdings in Waste Connections were worth $92,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of WCN. Versor Investments LP boosted its position in Waste Connections by 75.1% during the 3rd quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 8,221 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after acquiring an additional 3,527 shares in the last quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Waste Connections by 65.6% during the third quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,202 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in Waste Connections by 1.0% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 317,220 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $54,565,000 after purchasing an additional 3,106 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in Waste Connections by 11.0% in the second quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 65,052 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $11,408,000 after purchasing an additional 6,432 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC purchased a new position in Waste Connections during the first quarter valued at $1,319,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $198.00 to $197.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 25th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $198.00 to $196.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $205.00 target price (up previously from $200.00) on shares of Waste Connections in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $199.00 to $201.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, CIBC increased their target price on Waste Connections from $191.00 to $193.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Waste Connections currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $195.56.

Waste Connections Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of WCN stock opened at $186.01 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The company has a market cap of $48.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.10, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.72. Waste Connections, Inc. has a 1 year low of $130.33 and a 1 year high of $188.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $180.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $177.09.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The business services provider reported $1.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.30 by $0.05. Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.43% and a net margin of 10.81%. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.17 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Waste Connections, Inc. will post 4.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Waste Connections Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 7th were paid a dividend of $0.315 per share. This is a boost from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 7th. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.62%.

About Waste Connections

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.