Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.39 Per Share

Waste Connections, Inc. (TSE:WCN) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 24th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.385 per share on Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 7th. This is a positive change from Waste Connections’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.38.

Waste Connections Price Performance

Shares of WCN stock opened at C$225.65 on Friday. Waste Connections has a 12-month low of C$174.74 and a 12-month high of C$234.79. The firm has a market capitalization of C$58.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 91.42. The firm has a fifty day moving average of C$228.61 and a 200-day moving average of C$205.90.

Waste Connections (TSE:WCN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The company reported C$1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$1.38 by C$0.02. Waste Connections had a net margin of 9.51% and a return on equity of 10.30%. The company had revenue of C$2.79 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$2.78 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Waste Connections will post 8.9363601 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Waste Connections

In other news, Director Edward E. Guillet sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$168.79, for a total transaction of C$337,589.80. In other news, Senior Officer Matthew Stephen Black sold 4,128 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$167.34, for a total value of C$690,760.94. Also, Director Edward E. Guillet sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$168.79, for a total transaction of C$337,589.80. Insiders sold a total of 18,026 shares of company stock worth $3,043,157 over the last ninety days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on WCN shares. ATB Capital lowered shares of Waste Connections from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from C$200.00 to C$235.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Atb Cap Markets lowered shares of Waste Connections from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Waste Connections from C$169.00 to C$182.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$192.10.

Waste Connections Company Profile

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.