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Casella Waste Hits New 52-Week High: What's Driving it?

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Shares of Casella Waste Systems, Inc. (CWST - Free Report) reached a new 52-week high of $16.95 during its trading session on Jun 28. This apex improved upon the last 52-week high of $16.73 on Jun 27.

In the last three months, shares of the company have rallied 19.23%, outperforming the gain of 2.43% recorded by the Zacks categorized Pollution Control Equipments & Services industry.

On Jun 28, Casella Waste closed its trading session at $16.62, yielding a year-to-date return of roughly 33.9%. The trading volume for the session was approximately 0.25 million shares. Positive earnings estimate revisions for 2017 and 2018 indicate the stock’s potential for further price appreciation.

Growth Drivers

Market sentiments have been favoring Casella Waste for quite some time now, especially after the company reported solid first-quarter 2017 results, with an earnings beat of 111.11%. Improvement in profitability was achieved on the back of higher sales generation from solid waste operations, organics, customer solutions and recycling services. In the last four quarters (including results of the first quarter), the company pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 187.78%.
 
For the quarters ahead, Casella Waste remains committed toward lowering leverage via debt repayments and improving free cash flow on the back of higher operating cash flow generation and control over capital expenditures. Also, the company anticipates improving landfill returns and generating higher profitability from collection operations and recycling business.

The company targets generating revenues of $577−$587 million in 2017, up from $565 million in 2016. In addition, the company predicts adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to be in a $124−$128 million range compared with $120.6 million in 2016. Free cash flow will likely be within $32−$36 million versus $27.1 million in 2016.     

We believe that Casella Waste’s solid prospects have led to the positive revisions in earnings estimates. Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate on the stock grew 14.9% to 54 cents for 2017 and 5.3% to 60 cents for 2018. These estimates represent year-over-year growth of 182.9% for 2017 and 12.3% for 2018.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

With a market capitalization of $696 million, Casella Waste currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the sector include Donaldson Company, Inc. (DCI - Free Report) , Parker-Hannifin Corporation (PH - Free Report) and Kennametal Inc. (KMT - Free Report) . All these stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Donaldson Company pulled off an average positive earnings surprise of 3.94% in the last four quarters. Also, earnings estimates on the stock for 2017 and 2018 have been revised upward over the past 60 days.

Parker-Hannifin’s average earnings surprise for the last four quarters was a positive 14.94%. Also, earnings expectations for fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2018 improved over the past 60 days.

Kennametal delivered an average positive earnings surprise of 6.24% for the last four quarters. Also, its earnings are predicted to grow 8.3% in the next three to five years.

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