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See Item 7 of Part II Management s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. All references to dollars or $ used herein refer to U.S. dollars, and all references to CAD $ used herein refer to Canadian dollars, unless otherwise stated.
$171.91
$2.42 (-1.39%)
EOD Jul 17, 2026
18.06% operating margin is respectable but not wide. ROIC at 8.13%. Suggests the business covers its cost of capital, but doesn't point to a wide moat.
Revenue grew 6.1%, steady but not accelerating.
At 42x earnings, the current multiple leaves limited room for execution misses or growth deceleration. Net debt of $9.10B represents 7.4x FCF, leverage limits flexibility.
41.9x earnings, 38.1x FCF. The market is pricing in years of above-average growth. If that thesis breaks, downside from multiple compression alone could be 30%+. This is a stock where you're paying for the future, not the present.
Based on TTM earnings · Diluted shares
Profitability & Returns
Revenue (TTM)
$9.61B
▲ +6.1% YoY
Net Income (TTM)
$1.05B
▲ +74.3% YoY
Op. Margin
17.53%
▲ +6.1pp YoY
ROIC
7.83%
▲ +2.2pp YoY
Cash Flow & Balance Sheet
FCF (TTM)
$1.15B
▲ +5.3% YoY
Op. Cash Flow (TTM)
$2.42B
▲ +8.3% YoY
Net Debt
$9.33B
Cash & Equiv.
$112M
5Y CAGR: +11.7%
5Y CAGR: +8.8%
Continue Research
At a P/E of 41.9 and a price-to-free-cash-flow of 38.1, Waste Connections (WCN) trades above a two-stage DCF intrinsic value of about $51.31 per share, so at $171.91 the stock looks overvalued (70.2% above estimated intrinsic value). A high multiple is not the same as overvalued: fast-growing, high-quality businesses can deserve a premium. See the general approach in how to tell if a stock is overvalued.
On quality, Waste Connections scores 39/100 on Intrinsiqq's quality scorecard (a lower-quality business on these measures), weighing growth, margins, returns on capital, share count, and balance-sheet strength. It currently yields about 0.8%; see dividend safety for coverage and history. All figures are computed from SEC filings; read the full methodology. This is analysis, not investment advice.
Intrinsiqq's two-stage DCF estimates an intrinsic value of about $51.31 per share for WCN, projecting its recent free cash flow forward with a growth rate that fades toward a long-run rate and discounting it back to today. Applying a 25% margin of safety gives a more conservative fair-value entry around $38.48. At today's $171.91, that puts the stock about 70.2% above estimated intrinsic value. The result is sensitive to the growth and discount-rate inputs, so it is best to run conservative, base and optimistic cases. You can adjust all of them yourself with the sliders on the DCF tab.
Waste Connections scores 39 out of 100 on Intrinsiqq's quality score, a weighted blend of 8 metrics each scored 0 to 100, which makes it a lower-quality business on these measures. Recent fundamentals include a 17.5% operating margin and a 7.8% return on invested capital. The score weighs revenue and free-cash-flow growth, operating margins, return on invested capital, share-count change, and balance-sheet strength, all computed from SEC filings, not opinion. Because valuation only means something relative to quality, the full metric-by-metric breakdown is on the quality scorecard.
Yes, Waste Connections pays a regular dividend of about $1.33 per share per year (typically in quarterly installments), a yield of roughly 0.8% at the current price. That is a payout ratio of about 32.3% of earnings, so the dividend is amply covered by earnings. Waste Connections has grown the dividend at roughly 11.0% a year over the past few years. A low headline yield is not the same as a weak dividend: what matters is how well earnings and free cash flow cover the payout and whether it is growing, not the percentage alone. For WCN's full payout history, growth streak and dividend-safety score, see the dividends tab.
That depends on valuation and quality together, not either alone. WCN currently trades above its estimated intrinsic value and scores 39/100 on quality (lower-quality). It also yields about 0.8%. A cheap price is only a bargain if the business is durable, and a premium can be justified by genuine quality, so the two questions, "is it cheap?" and "is it good?", only make sense side by side. Read the valuation against the quality scorecard, run the DCF on your own assumptions, and decide for yourself. This is analysis from SEC filings, not investment advice.