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

In the latest trading session, Waste Management (WM) closed at $156.65, marking a -0.51% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.08% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.56%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.42%.

Coming into today, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had lost 5.17% in the past month. In that same time, the Business Services sector lost 16.48%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.22%.

Waste Management will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 2, 2022. In that report, analysts expect Waste Management to post earnings of $1.25 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 10.62%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.59 billion, up 12.88% from the prior-year quarter.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Waste Management. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.1% lower within the past month. Waste Management is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, Waste Management currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 28.99. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 27.77, which means Waste Management is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that WM currently has a PEG ratio of 2.31. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Waste Removal Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.59 as of yesterday's close.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 94, putting it in the top 37% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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