Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) will release its quarterly report on Tuesday, and the recycling and trash-hauling giant has continued to post slow but steady price gains in its stock, as well as paying a sizable dividend. Yet for growth investors, Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) earnings lack the catalyst to drive the company to greater heights, leaving some wondering if the company is truly achieving its full potential.
Stats on Waste Management
| Analyst EPS Estimate | $0.55 |
| Change From Year-Ago EPS | 5.8% |
| Revenue Estimate | $3.55 billion |
| Change From Year-Ago Revenue | 2.5% |
| Earnings Beats in Past Four Quarters | 1 |
Source: Yahoo! Finance.
Will Waste Management earnings ever grow faster?
In another sign of how solid yet uninspiring Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) earnings are, analysts haven’t budged on their estimates for either the company’s June quarter or its 2013 or 2014 years’ results. Still, investors can’t complain about gains in the stock of about 9% since late April.
Waste Management, Inc. (NYSE:WM) has done a great job of taking what appears to be a very simple business and turning into a long-term moneymaker. Even though the company didn’t manage to meet analysts’ expectations in its first-quarter report, posting just 1% sales growth and an almost 2% decline in net income, Waste Management reaffirmed its full-year guidance on earnings and noted that cost-cutting measures had helped it boost its cash flow higher.
Waste Management has also sought to expand its business wherever possible, taking advantage of new opportunities both to grow and to make its operations more efficient. For instance, collecting biogas and methane from its landfills doesn’t just take advantage of an energy source that the company has already essentially paid for; it also gives it opportunities to cut costs by using that gas to fuel its collection trucks as well as giving it a side electricity-generation business that produces enough power to serve hundreds of thousands of homes.
What’s most surprising about Waste Management is how long it has taken competitors to understand the gold mine involved in trash collection. Nevertheless, rival Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG) and Canadian company Progressive Waste Solutions have made their own impressions in the space, and their collective efforts have put pressure on revenue sources like recycling sales.
The rise of niche companies also takes away some expansion potential from Waste Management. Waste Connections, Inc. (NYSE:WCN) has increasingly focused on cleaning contaminated oil fields and drilling facilities as well as recovering oil from storage tanks, and that has helped the company build a name for itself that could potentially prevent Waste Management from competing effectively in the space. Similarly, with Nuverra Environmental Solutions Inc (NYSE:NES)‘s success in providing water and wastewater treatment for energy producers, it’d be hard for Waste Management to make inroads in the energy sector.
In the Waste Management earnings report, see if the company gives any guidance on where it expects its best prospects for growth in the future. In all likelihood, though, Waste Management will stay on its steady upward track, and it’ll be up to you to decide whether it’s worth paying up for shares that offer stability and a dividend yield approaching 3.5%.
Dividend stocks can make you rich. It’s as simple as that. While they don’t garner the notoriety of high-flying growth stocks, they’re also less likely to crash and burn. And over the long term, the compounding effect of the quarterly payouts, as well as their growth, adds up faster than most investors imagine.
The article Why Waste Management Earnings Are Stuck in Slow-Growth Mode originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. You can follow him on Twitter @DanCaplinger. The Motley Fool recommends Republic Services and Waste Management. The Motley Fool owns shares of Nuverra Environmental Solutions and Waste Management and has the following options: long January 2014 $4 calls on Nuverra Environmental Solutions and short January 2014 $3 puts on Nuverra Environmental Solutions.
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