Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE:CLH) Short Interest Up 29.3% in October

Clean Harbors, Inc. (NYSE:CLH) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 522,600 shares, a growth of 29.3% from the October 15th total of 404,300 shares. Approximately 1.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 256,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLH has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Clean Harbors from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $275.00 price target (up from $240.00) on shares of Clean Harbors in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of Clean Harbors from $274.00 to $268.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Clean Harbors from $300.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Clean Harbors from $252.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $254.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Lauren States sold 309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $244.09, for a total transaction of $75,423.81. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,458 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,284,963.22. This represents a 2.24 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Robert Speights sold 610 shares of Clean Harbors stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.14, for a total transaction of $146,485.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 39,160 shares in the company, valued at $9,403,882.40. This trade represents a 1.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,227 shares of company stock valued at $2,759,617 over the last 90 days. 5.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Clean Harbors

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Clean Harbors in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Clean Harbors by 63.4% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 214 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. acquired a new stake in Clean Harbors in the 2nd quarter valued at $56,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Clean Harbors during the 3rd quarter valued at $56,000. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its holdings in Clean Harbors by 161.6% during the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 259 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $63,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. 90.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Clean Harbors Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE CLH traded up $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $250.91. 20,137 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 296,489. The stock has a market cap of $13.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.62 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 2.10 and a quick ratio of 1.76. Clean Harbors has a one year low of $158.42 and a one year high of $267.11. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $248.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $233.02.

Clean Harbors (NYSE:CLH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.15 by ($0.03). Clean Harbors had a return on equity of 17.51% and a net margin of 7.19%. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.51 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Clean Harbors will post 7.29 EPS for the current year.

About Clean Harbors

Clean Harbors, Inc provides environmental and industrial services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Environmental Services and Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions. The Environmental Services segment collects, transports, treats, and disposes hazardous and non-hazardous waste, such as resource recovery, physical treatment, fuel blending, incineration, landfill disposal, wastewater treatment, lab chemicals disposal, and explosives management services; and offers CleanPack services, including collection, identification, categorization, specialized packaging, transportation, and disposal of laboratory chemicals and household hazardous waste.