Waste Connections, Inc. (WCN) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 27th

Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of 0.315 per share by the business services provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $1.26 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th.

Waste Connections has raised its dividend by an average of 11.5% per year over the last three years. Waste Connections has a payout ratio of 21.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Waste Connections to earn $5.37 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.26 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.5%.

Waste Connections Stock Performance

NYSE:WCN opened at $188.91 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $48.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $179.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $181.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Waste Connections has a 1 year low of $158.16 and a 1 year high of $194.83.

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The business services provider reported $1.16 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.04). Waste Connections had a return on equity of 15.43% and a net margin of 10.81%. On average, analysts expect that Waste Connections will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on WCN. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Waste Connections from $196.00 to $192.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Waste Connections from $192.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Waste Connections from $206.00 to $214.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. CIBC lowered their price objective on Waste Connections from $215.00 to $212.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Waste Connections from $205.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Waste Connections has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $199.06.

About Waste Connections

Waste Connections, Inc provides non-hazardous waste collection, transfer, disposal, and resource recovery services in the United States and Canada. It offers collection services to residential, commercial, municipal, industrial, and exploration and production (E&P) customers; landfill disposal services; and recycling services for various recyclable materials, including compost, cardboard, mixed paper, plastic containers, glass bottles, and ferrous and aluminum metals.