Waste Management (WM) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

Waste Management (WM) closed the most recent trading day at $151.25, moving +1.59% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.07% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.27%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.02%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had lost 6.08% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Business Services sector's loss of 8.85% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.99% in that time.

Waste Management will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Waste Management is projected to report earnings of $1.36 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 7.09%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.84 billion, up 8.12% from the year-ago period.

WM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.55 per share and revenue of $19.39 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +14.67% and +8.13%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Waste Management. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-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. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Waste Management currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Investors should also note Waste Management's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 26.84. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.38.

We can also see that WM currently has a PEG ratio of 2.47. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Waste Removal Services was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.47 at yesterday's closing price.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 56, which puts it in the top 23% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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