Bernstein SocGen Group analyst Connor Cerniglia reiterated an Outperform rating and $260.00 price target on Waste Management (NYSE: WM).

The analyst commented: "A modest miss from lower volumes likely related to weather issues; Waste Connections was the first Waste company to report this earnings season, beating modestly on sales, margins, and EPS growth, a reflection of a healthy core solid waste business. WM and RSG both rallied on the day, reflecting investor expectations for similar beats when they report. Instead, today’s results were modestly below consensus for Waste Management, missing on the top and bottom line ignoring a beat on tax.

What explains WM’s modest miss versus WCN’s modest beat? Weather is the likely explanation, with WCN under-indexing to the Northeast region which was impacted by two winter snowstorms, while WM has greater exposure to the region, evidenced by the volume miss this quarter, mainly from lower landfill volumes."

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Shares of Waste Management closed at $227.35 yesterday.