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

Waste Management (WM) closed at $170.91 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.93% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.69%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.64%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.2%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had lost 2.86% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Business Services sector's loss of 12.24% and the S&P 500's loss of 9.94% in that time.

Waste Management will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Waste Management to post earnings of $1.50 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 19.05%. 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.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Waste Management. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

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 sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Investors should also note Waste Management's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 29.69. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.11.

Also, we should mention that WM has a PEG ratio of 2.51. 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. The Waste Removal Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.51 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 44, which puts it in the top 18% 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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