Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) Earns Outperform Rating from William Blair

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at William Blair in a report issued on Friday,RTT News reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on CWST. Jefferies Financial Group cut Casella Waste Systems from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $115.00 to $113.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price target on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $114.00 to $107.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $117.00 to $127.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $114.20.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of CWST stock traded up $3.65 during trading on Friday, hitting $115.01. 643,804 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 316,761. Casella Waste Systems has a twelve month low of $86.41 and a twelve month high of $115.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 2.48 and a current ratio of 2.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 958.42, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 1.04. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $107.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $105.88.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The industrial products company reported $0.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.25. Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 0.46% and a return on equity of 3.04%. As a group, analysts forecast that Casella Waste Systems will post 0.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CWST. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,110,529 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $646,555,000 after acquiring an additional 123,001 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 48.2% during the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,577,308 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $272,705,000 after purchasing an additional 838,086 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Casella Waste Systems by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,830,220 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $193,656,000 after purchasing an additional 13,678 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,644,476 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $174,002,000 after buying an additional 190,023 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Casella Waste Systems by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,446,875 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $153,129,000 after buying an additional 15,917 shares during the period. 99.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Casella Waste Systems Company Profile

Casella Waste Systems, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers.