Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) was the target of a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,850,000 shares, an increase of 23.3% from the February 28th total of 1,500,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 352,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.3 days. Currently, 3.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Casella Waste Systems

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CWST. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in Casella Waste Systems by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 802 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Casella Waste Systems by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Summit Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 6,388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $676,000 after buying an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,516 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $372,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 124.4% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 276 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Casella Waste Systems by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 12,267 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,298,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CWST has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Casella Waste Systems from $127.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Casella Waste Systems from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $115.00 to $113.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Casella Waste Systems in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $117.75.

Casella Waste Systems Price Performance

Shares of CWST stock traded up $1.23 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $113.91. The company had a trading volume of 170,016 shares, compared to its average volume of 329,421. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 495.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.05. Casella Waste Systems has a one year low of $86.41 and a one year high of $116.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 2.48 and a current ratio of 2.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $109.77 and its 200 day moving average price is $107.07.

Casella Waste Systems (NASDAQ:CWST) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The industrial products company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities analysts expect that Casella Waste Systems will post 1.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.