UBS Group Issues Positive Forecast for Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) Stock Price

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) had its price objective increased by UBS Group from $130.00 to $135.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the industrial products company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on CWST. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $127.00 to $129.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Friday, February 14th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $130.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered Casella Waste Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Casella Waste Systems presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $122.67.

Casella Waste Systems Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of CWST opened at $115.08 on Friday. Casella Waste Systems has a fifty-two week low of $86.41 and a fifty-two week high of $116.31. The company has a market capitalization of $7.29 billion, a PE ratio of 500.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $110.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $107.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 2.48 and a current ratio of 2.00.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The industrial products company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.25. Casella Waste Systems had a return on equity of 4.15% and a net margin of 0.87%. As a group, analysts forecast that Casella Waste Systems will post 1.16 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Casella Waste Systems

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CWST. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,110,529 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $646,555,000 after buying an additional 123,001 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 48.2% in the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 2,577,308 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $272,705,000 after acquiring an additional 838,086 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Casella Waste Systems by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,830,220 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $193,656,000 after acquiring an additional 13,678 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Casella Waste Systems by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,644,476 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $174,002,000 after acquiring an additional 190,023 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,446,875 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $153,129,000 after purchasing an additional 15,917 shares during the period. 99.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Casella Waste Systems

Casella Waste Systems, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a vertically integrated solid waste services company in the United States. It offers resource management services primarily in the areas of solid waste collection and disposal, transfer, recycling, and organics services to residential, commercial, municipal, institutional, and industrial customers.