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Gloomy Near-Term Outlook for Waste Removal Services Industry

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Companies in the Zacks Waste Removal Services industry are engaged in collection, transport, treatment, disposal, inspection and regulation of any form of waste. The companies serve residential, municipal, commercial and industrial customers in the United States and internationally.

Here are the industry’s three major themes:

  • The industry is mature with growth coming from volume and price increases. Rising environmental concerns, rapid industrialization, increase in population and expected increase in non-hazardous waste as a result of rapid economic growth should enhance business opportunities for waste management companies. Per a report from statista, the global waste management market is expected to reach $530 billion in 2025,  which indicates a significant upside from $330.6 billion revenues in 2017.
  • Growing adoption of recycling techniques, development of technologies and advanced waste collection solutions should continue to drive the industry. The companies are increasingly undertaking municipal solid waste and non-hazardous industrial waste recycling measures.
  • Government initiatives and stringent rules and regulations to advance sustainable waste management mechanisms, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put a check on illegal dumping are also expected to boost the industry’s growth.The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), aimed at reducing open dumping and managing hazardous and non-hazardous waste, will significantly benefit the industry.

Zacks Industry Rank Indicates Gloomy Prospects

The Zacks Waste Removal Services industry, which is housed within the broader Zacks Business Services sector, currently carries a Zacks Industry Rank #226. This rank places it in the bottom 11% of more than 250 Zacks industries. 

The group’s Zacks Industry Rank, which is basically the average of the Zacks Rank of all the member stocks, indicates bleak near-term growth prospects. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

The sell-side analysts covering the companies in this industry have been decreasing their estimates. Over the past year, the industry’s consensus earnings estimate for the current year has decreased 7.7%.

Despite the dull prospects, we present a few stocks that you may want to consider for your portfolio. But before that, it’s worth taking a look at the industry’s performance and current valuation.

Industry Outperforms Sector and S&P 500

The Zacks Waste Removal Services Industry has outperformed the broader Zacks Business Services sector as well as the Zacks S&P 500 composite over the past year.

The industry has gained 23.8% over this period compared with 11.8% increase of the broader sector and 5.8% rise of the Zacks S&P 500 composite.

One-Year Price Performance

 

Industry’s Current Valuation

On the basis of EV-to-EBITDA (enterprise value to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization), which is commonly used for valuing waste removal services stocks because of their high debt levels, the industry is currently trading at 11.48X compared with the S&P 500’s 11.11X and the sector’s 12.13X.

Over the past five years, the industry has traded as high as 12.18X, as low as 8.48X and at the median of 9.98X, as the charts below show.

EV/EBITDA Ratio

 

 

 

Bottom Line

Rapid economic growth and industrialization, increase in population, rising environmental concerns, growing adoption of advanced waste collection solutionsand government initiatives toward sustainable waste management should keep supporting the industry’s growth.

Below, we have mentioned three stocks from the Zacks Waste Removal Services industry, which we believe investors should hold on to as each of these carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Let’s take a look at the stocks.

Clean Harbors (CLH - Free Report) : This Massachusetts-based company provides environmental, energy and industrial services in North America.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year EPS has remained unchanged in the past 60 days.

Price and Consensus: CLH

 

US Ecology : This Idaho-based company provides environmental services to commercial and government entities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year EPS has remained unchanged in the past 60 days.

Price and Consensus: ECOL

 

NRC Group Holdings Corp. : This Texas-based company provides various environmental, compliance, and waste management services.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year EPS has remained unchanged in the past 60 days.

Price and Consensus: NRCG

 

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