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

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Waste Management (WM - Free Report) closed at $94.60 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.73% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 3.35% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 3.19%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 3.62%.

Heading into today, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had lost 16.12% over the past month, lagging the Business Services sector's loss of 15.82% and the S&P 500's loss of 14.37% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from WM as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 6, 2020. On that day, WM is projected to report earnings of $0.99 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 5.32%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $3.75 billion, up 1.58% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.45 per share and revenue of $15.71 billion. These totals would mark changes of +1.14% and +1.67%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for WM. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 3.21% lower. WM is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note WM's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 21.4. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 22.61.

Meanwhile, WM's PEG ratio is currently 2.53. 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. Waste Removal Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.8 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 86, which puts it in the top 34% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. 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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