This story originally appeared on Zacks

In the latest trading session, Waste Management (WM) closed at $161.84, marking a -1.5% move from the previous day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500’s daily loss of 1.94%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.07%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.39%.

Prior to today’s trading, shares of the garbage and recycling hauler had gained 0.03% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector’s loss of 8.97% and lagged the S&P 500’s gain of 5.72% in that time.

Waste Management will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Waste Management is projected to report earnings of $1.25 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.62%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.57 billion, up 12.48% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Waste Management. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.12% lower. Waste Management is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, Waste Management currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 30.22. This represents a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 28.1.

It is also worth noting that WM currently has a PEG ratio of 2.41. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company’s expected earnings growth rate into account. Waste Removal Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.71 based on yesterday’s closing prices.

The Waste Removal Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 105, putting it in the top 42% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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