Waste Connections Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Waste Connections (NYSE: WCN  ) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday. Waste Connections is an integrated solid waste services company that provides solid waste collection, transfer, disposal, and recycling services in mostly secondary markets in the Western and Southern United States.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like Waste Connections better than competitor Stericycle overall. Six out of nine analysts rate Stericycle a buy compared to four of four for Waste Connections. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Waste Connections for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $377.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.35 per share. Estimates range from $0.34 to $0.36.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98.3% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 93.5% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Waste Connections, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 51 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Waste Connections, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Waste Connections' profit has risen year over year by an average of 36.8% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Waste Connections has experienced a boost in operating margins year over year for the last four quarters. Operating margins reflect the total sales revenue that the company retains after costs. Here are Waste Connections' reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	43.4%	43.1%	43.6%	43.0%
Operating Margin	22.1%	21.7%	20.7%	20.2%
Net Margin	11.5%	11.4%	11.0%	10.8%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.