Waste Management (WM) Stock Moves -0.31%: What You Should Know

Waste Management (WM) closed at $165.22 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.31% move from the prior day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.03%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.11%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.13%.

Heading into today, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had lost 3.36% over the past month, outpacing the Business Services sector's loss of 12.88% and the S&P 500's loss of 10.4% in that time.

Waste Management will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.50, up 19.05% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $5.05 billion, up 8.33% from the prior-year quarter.

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.

Investors might also notice 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Waste Management is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Waste Management is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 29.06. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 16.17.

Also, we should mention that WM has a PEG ratio of 2.46. 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 industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.46 as of yesterday's close.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 48, which puts it in the top 20% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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