Waste Management (WM) Competitors

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) and Republic Services (NYSE:RSG) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of WM or RSG?

80.4% of Waste Management shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.7% of Republic Services shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Waste Management shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Republic Services shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is WM or RSG a better dividend stock?

Waste Management pays an annual dividend of $3.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Republic Services pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Waste Management pays out 48.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Republic Services pays out 35.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Waste Management has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Republic Services has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, WM or RSG?

Waste Management has higher revenue and earnings than Republic Services. Waste Management is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Republic Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Waste Management	$22.06B	4.25	$2.75B	$6.80	34.27
Republic Services	$16.03B	4.80	$2.04B	$6.49	38.00

Do analysts recommend WM or RSG?

Waste Management presently has a consensus price target of $237.76, suggesting a potential upside of 2.04%. Republic Services has a consensus price target of $239.13, suggesting a potential downside of 3.05%. Given Waste Management's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Waste Management is more favorable than Republic Services.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Waste Management	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.65
Republic Services	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.76

Does the media favor WM or RSG?

In the previous week, Waste Management had 17 more articles in the media than Republic Services. MarketBeat recorded 47 mentions for Waste Management and 30 mentions for Republic Services. Republic Services' average media sentiment score of 1.38 beat Waste Management's score of 0.83 indicating that Republic Services is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Waste Management	22 Very Positive mention(s)	9 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	4 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Republic Services	24 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in WM or RSG?

Waste Management received 104 more outperform votes than Republic Services when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.70% of users gave Waste Management an outperform vote while only 64.56% of users gave Republic Services an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Waste Management	Outperform Votes 605 66.70%	Underperform Votes 302 33.30%
Republic Services	Outperform Votes 501 64.56%	Underperform Votes 275 35.44%

Is WM or RSG more profitable?

Republic Services has a net margin of 12.74% compared to Waste Management's net margin of 12.45%. Waste Management's return on equity of 37.93% beat Republic Services' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Waste Management	12.45%	37.93%	7.99%
Republic Services	12.74%	18.28%	6.37%

Which has more volatility & risk, WM or RSG?

Waste Management has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Republic Services has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Waste Management beats Republic Services on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.