Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) Research Coverage Started at William Blair

Equities research analysts at William Blair started coverage on shares of Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

CWST has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $121.00 to $122.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $117.00 price objective (up from $110.00) on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Casella Waste Systems currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $108.20.

Casella Waste Systems Stock Performance

NASDAQ CWST opened at $98.95 on Thursday. Casella Waste Systems has a fifty-two week low of $72.97 and a fifty-two week high of $109.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 320.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.89 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $103.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $99.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 1.58.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The industrial products company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.28 by ($0.06). Casella Waste Systems had a net margin of 1.35% and a return on equity of 3.83%. The firm had revenue of $377.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $373.87 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 30.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Casella Waste Systems will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Casella Waste Systems

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,730 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $767,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 76.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 321 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its stake in Casella Waste Systems by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 16,286 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,610,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Casella Waste Systems by 38.1% during the 1st quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 613 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. boosted its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 10,436 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,035,000 after acquiring an additional 183 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.