Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Purchases 14,343 Shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM - Free Report) by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 177,523 shares of the business services provider's stock after buying an additional 14,343 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.'s holdings in Waste Management were worth $36,854,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 4,629 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $988,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares during the period. OLD National Bancorp IN raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 6.7% in the 2nd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 6,203 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,323,000 after purchasing an additional 390 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,657 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,847,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Sax Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Waste Management in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $238,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Waste Management by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 28,377 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $6,054,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.40% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on WM shares. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $230.00 to $231.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com cut shares of Waste Management from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday, December 1st. Argus boosted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Waste Management from $235.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, William Blair started coverage on shares of Waste Management in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Waste Management has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $229.33.

Waste Management Price Performance

NYSE:WM traded down $1.86 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $222.19. The company had a trading volume of 1,787,615 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,612,979. Waste Management, Inc. has a 52-week low of $171.15 and a 52-week high of $230.39. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $216.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $211.09. The company has a market capitalization of $89.18 billion, a PE ratio of 33.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 28th. The business services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.51 billion. Waste Management had a net margin of 12.35% and a return on equity of 39.88%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Waste Management Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Waste Management's dividend payout ratio is presently 45.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Maryrose Sylvester sold 310 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.47, for a total transaction of $66,795.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 3,875 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $834,946.25. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Waste Management Company Profile

Waste Management, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of environmental solutions to residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services, including picking up and transporting waste and recyclable materials from where it was generated to a transfer station, material recovery facility (MRF), or disposal site; and owns and operates transfer stations, as well as owns, develops, and operates landfill facilities that produce landfill gas used as renewable natural gas for generating electricity.