Waste Management (WM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Waste Management (WM) closed at $168.18, marking a +1.87% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 3.06%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.8%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.18%.

Coming into today, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had lost 1.99% in the past month. In that same time, the Business Services sector lost 8.85%, while the S&P 500 lost 6.15%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Waste Management as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 26, 2022. In that report, analysts expect Waste Management to post earnings of $1.49 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 18.25%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.05 billion, up 8.28% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.70 per share and revenue of $19.77 billion, which would represent changes of +17.77% and +10.27%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Waste Management. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.12% lower. Waste Management is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, Waste Management currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 28.98. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 20, so we one might conclude that Waste Management is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that WM has a PEG ratio of 2.45. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Waste Removal Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.45 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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