EVX

Economic Data Recap in 3 Minutes

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Image Source: CreditDebitPro via Flickr There’s a lot happening to impact the markets these days. Let’s cover some key economic data, stocks that may see a fundamental boost from Hurricane Florence, and we’ll reiterate our view that trade tantrums between the US and China will likely not amount to much of a negative impact on global economic activity, despite huge headline numbers. By Kris Rosemann Famed investor Peter Lynch has been attributed with the quote, “If you spend more than 13 minutes analyzing economic and market forecasts, you’ve wasted 10 minutes,” so let’s take a quick look at some recent economic data releases and what they might mean for the markets moving forward. Most market observers continue to expect the … Read more

Waste Industry Collecting Cash

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Pressures in the recycling business didn’t negate revenue growth across the municipal solid waste space during the first quarter of 2018, and the pace of operating-income and free-cash-flow expansion remains solid. Valuations could be more attractive, but dividends look strong, even though we’d like to see lower levels of financial leverage. By Brian Nelson, CFA Waste Management (WM) kicked off first-quarter earnings season for the big three garbage haulers in the municipal waste space April 20. Though recycling revenue faced pressure during the period, Waste Management’s first-quarter results had everything we’d be looking for. Core price advanced 4.9%, and traditional solid waste internal revenue growth from volume was 3%, helping to drive total reported revenue higher by 2.1%. The solid … Read more

Commodity Prices Affect Waste Industry Performance

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Waste industry economics are relatively easy to understand. Municipal solid waste has to end up somewhere, and therefore whoever has the most diverse disposal operations can set the bar with respect to pricing, which impacts tipping fees and the economics of transfer facilities and collection operations. After all, garbage pick-up operators won’t be in business for long if they pay more to dispose of waste than they charge to pick it up. We view disposal operations as having oligopolistic tendencies, even if collection operations face some of the most intense pricing competition of any industry. As for the players, Waste Management (WM) and Republic Services (RSG) have the largest disposal operations in the US. At the end of 2014, Waste … Read more