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Waste Management (WM) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Waste Management (WM - Free Report) closed at $111.37, marking a +1.85% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.28% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.02%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.61%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had gained 2.11% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector's loss of 1.86% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.3% in that time.

WM will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect WM to post earnings of $1.08 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 6.93%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.94 billion, up 5.32% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.32 per share and revenue of $15.62 billion. These totals would mark changes of +2.86% and +4.75%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for WM. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. WM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WM has a Forward P/E ratio of 25.33 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 26.42, which means WM is trading at a discount to the group.

Meanwhile, WM's PEG ratio is currently 2.96. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Waste Removal Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.86 as of yesterday's close.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 158, putting it in the bottom 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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