Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) Sets New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday. The company traded as high as C$274.03 and last traded at C$273.92, with a volume of 348,008 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$271.03.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, UBS Group raised shares of Waste Connections from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a C$200.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Waste Connections presently has an average rating of “Strong Buy” and an average target price of C$200.00.

Waste Connections Stock Up 1.1%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 123.96, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market capitalization of C$68.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.53. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is C$234.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$228.31.

Waste Connections Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 19th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.3850 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 5th. This represents a $1.54 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Waste Connections’s dividend payout ratio is 31.39%.

Insider Activity at Waste Connections

In related news, insider James M. Little sold 2,000 shares of Waste Connections stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$258.79, for a total transaction of C$517,580.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 32,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$8,383,502.05. The trade was a 5.81% decrease in their position. 0.21% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Waste Connections

Waste Connections ( wasteconnections.com ) is an integrated solid waste services company that provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer and disposal services, including by rail, along with resource recovery primarily through recycling and renewable fuels generation. The Company serves approximately nine million residential, commercial and industrial customers in mostly exclusive and secondary markets across 46 states in the U.S. and six provinces in Canada. Waste Connections also provides non-hazardous oilfield waste treatment, recovery and disposal services in several basins across the U.S. and Canada, as well as intermodal services for the movement of cargo and solid waste containers in the Pacific Northwest.