Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp Buys Shares of 2,768 Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM)

Murphy & Mullick Capital Management Corp purchased a new position in shares of Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $559,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in Waste Management by 892.9% in the 4th quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 139 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. General Partner Inc. acquired a new position in Waste Management in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Waste Management in the fourth quarter worth approximately $33,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Waste Management during the fourth quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its position in Waste Management by 65.7% in the fourth quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 174 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.40% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO James C. Fish, Jr. sold 44,405 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $228.43, for a total value of $10,143,434.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 211,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,212,664.23. This represents a 17.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO John A. Carroll sold 1,251 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.92, for a total value of $282,625.92. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 8,420 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,902,246.40. This represents a 12.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 95,577 shares of company stock worth $21,662,464 over the last 90 days. 0.18% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WM has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $255.00 to $238.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Waste Management from $231.00 to $237.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Waste Management from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Raymond James boosted their target price on Waste Management from $235.00 to $237.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Waste Management from $250.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $236.65.

Waste Management Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:WM opened at $227.26 on Wednesday. Waste Management, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $196.59 and a fifty-two week high of $235.81. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $223.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $216.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.73. The stock has a market cap of $91.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.75.

Waste Management (NYSE:WM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The business services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.79 by ($0.09). Waste Management had a return on equity of 37.93% and a net margin of 12.45%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Waste Management, Inc. will post 7.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Waste Management Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Waste Management’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Waste Management’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.53%.

About Waste Management

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.