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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 the most recent trading day at $140.65, moving -1.19% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.22% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.13%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.2%.

Coming into today, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had lost 6.83% in the past month. In that same time, the Business Services sector lost 7.62%, while the S&P 500 lost 8.32%.

Waste Management will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.36, up 7.09% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.84 billion, up 8.12% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.55 per share and revenue of $19.39 billion, which would represent changes of +14.67% and +8.13%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Waste Management. 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 remained stagnant. Waste Management is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Investors should also note Waste Management's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 25.66. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.68.

Meanwhile, WM's PEG ratio is currently 2.36. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Waste Removal Services was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.36 at yesterday's closing price.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 60, which puts it in the top 24% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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