Waste Management, Inc. (WM) Stock

About Waste Management, Inc.

Waste Management, Inc. (WM) functions as a premier provider of environmental waste solutions across North America, serving a diverse client base that includes residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers. The company's core operations involve comprehensive collection services, which include gathering and transporting both waste materials and recyclables from their initial point of generation to designated transfer stations, material recovery facilities (MRFs), or final disposal sites. Waste Management maintains an extensive network of facilities, owning, developing, and operating landfill gas-to-energy plants within the United States, in addition to managing numerous transfer stations. As of December 31, 2021, its substantial infrastructure consisted of 255 solid waste landfills, 5 secure hazardous waste landfills, 96 material recovery facilities, and 340 transfer stations. Beyond primary collection and disposal, WM offers services in materials processing and commodities recycling. This extends to recycling brokerage, where they handle the marketing of recyclable goods for third-party entities, alongside providing various other strategic business solutions. Its service portfolio also encompasses construction and remediation projects, the responsible management of fly ash and other residues generated from coal and fuel combustion, and specialized in-plant services offering full-spectrum waste management consulting. Furthermore, the company delivers tailored disposal solutions for oil and gas exploration and production activities. Originally incorporated in 1987 as USA Waste Services, Inc., the company rebranded to Waste Management, Inc. in 1998. Its corporate headquarters are situated in Houston, Texas.

Waste Management, Inc. is led by CEO James C. Fish Jr., employs 61,700 people, headquartered in Houston, US, publicly traded since 1988.

Waste Management, Inc. (WM) stock trades at $236.60 with a market capitalization of $95.01B. The stock is valued at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 32.30, price-to-book of 8.95, price-to-sales of 3.52. Over the past 52 weeks the stock has ranged between $194.11 and $248.13, and currently trades 4.6% below its 52-week high. It pays a dividend yielding 1.59%.

On profitability, Waste Management, Inc. generates a return on equity (ROE) of 29.94% — well above the market average, a sign of a high-quality business, return on capital employed of 46.11%, an operating margin of 18.28%, a net profit margin of 10.99%.

In its most recent fiscal year, Waste Management, Inc. reported annual revenue of $25.2B, net profit of $2.7B, revenue has compounded at 10.6% a year over the last five years, profit at 12.6% a year. Profit growing faster than revenue points to expanding margins.

The balance sheet shows a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.28 — a leveraged balance sheet worth monitoring, a current ratio of 0.93, total assets of $45.8B, $201.0M in cash and equivalents.

WM has an average daily trading volume of 2,137,222 shares, a beta of 0.46 (less volatile than the overall market).

Official website: www.wm.com