Waste Connections (WCN) Q3 Earnings & Revenues Top Estimates

Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) reported solid third-quarter 2019 results, wherein the company’s earnings and revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Adjusted earnings of 73 cents per share beat the consensus estimate by a penny and increased 5.8% year over year. Revenues of $1.41 billion beat the consensus mark by $7.1 million and improved 10.2% year over year.

The company has gained $82.8 million of revenues from acquisitions completed since the year-ago period.

So far this year, shares of Waste Connections have gained 24.7% compared with 21.6% rise of the industry it belongs to.

Let’s check out the numbers in detail.

Revenues by Segment

Solid Waste Collection segment revenues increased 13.7% year over year to $988.26 million. The segment accounted for 70% of total revenues.

Solid Waste Disposal and Transfer segment revenues increased 9.1% from the year-ago quarter to $317.66 million. The segment contributed 22.5% to total revenues.

E&P Waste Treatment, Recovery and Disposal segment revenues increased 2.5% from the year-ago quarter to $66.41 million. The segment contributed 4.7% to total revenues.

Intermodal and Other segment revenues declined 20.9% to $26.37 million. The segment accounted for 1.8% of total revenues.

Solid Waste Recycling segment revenues declined 38.6% year over year to $13.75 million. The segment accounted for 1% of total revenues.

Operating Results

Adjusted EBITDA in the third quarter was $443.56 million compared with $416.81 million in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 31.4% compared with 32.5% in the year-ago quarter.

Operating income totaled $236.60 million compared with $232.87 million in the year-ago quarter. Operating margin was 16.8% compared with 18.2% in the year-ago quarter.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

Waste Connections exited third-quarter 2019 with cash and cash equivalents of $303.78 million compared with $209.21 million at the end of the prior quarter. Long-term debt was $4.04 billion compared with $4.08 billion at the end of the prior quarter.

The company generated $432.38 million of cash from operating activities in the reported quarter. Adjusted free cash flow was $259.03 million and capital expenditures totaled $179.74 million.

Waste Connections paid out dividend of $42.13 million in the reported quarter. The company increased its regular quarterly cash dividend by 15.6%.

Zacks Rank & Upcoming Releases

Currently, Waste Connections carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Investors interested in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are awaiting third-quarter 2019 earnings of key players like Fiserv (NASDAQ:FISV) , ICF International (NASDAQ:ICFI) and FLEETCOR Technologies (NYSE:FLT) , each scheduled to release results on Nov 6.

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